It is difficult to predict who will win the Tour de Suisse even after the third stage. Bart Lemmen retained his third place in the standings on Tuesday, while Quinn Simmons took the stage victory.
Simmons was the strongest of the early breakaway in the hilly stage to Heiden. The 24-year-old American from Lidl-Trek soloed the last 20 kilometers to the finish and held on on the uphill finish. It was his second victory at WorldTour level, after a stage in the Tour of Catalonia last year.
João Almeida sprinted to second place in the stage results eighteen seconds behind. The Portuguese rider from UAE Team Emirates was the top favorite for the Tour de Suisse in advance and could have won the third stage, but his team rides like loose sand in the absence of Tadej Pogacar.
That became visible on Sunday in the hilly opening stage, when a huge group with classification riders was allowed to take minutes ahead of, among others, Almeida. Romain Grégoire won and still leads the dance in the standings. Lemmen also benefited from the chaos on Sunday.
The 29-year-old Dutchman from Visma-Lease a Bike finished in the group with Almeida on Tuesday and remains third in the standings. Lemmen’s deficit to Grégoire is 27 seconds. Almeida is more than three minutes behind the Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ.
Mud slinging at UAE
The chaos at UAE was underlined on Monday by a late attack by the Swiss talent Jan Christen, who was caught again a little later. That earned him a sneer from teammate Mikkel Bjerg. “Nice to see that he has good legs,” the Dane said to TV 2 Sport. “It’s just a shame that he still doesn’t understand how he should help the rest of the team.”
A day later, UAE – on paper the strongest team – still did not ride as one team. It is therefore difficult to predict who will win this edition of the Tour de Suisse. There is a long climb in Wednesday’s stage, but the top is about 50 kilometers from the finish. The stage race lasts until Sunday.