Danny van Poppel helped his team Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe to a stage victory in the Tour de Suisse on Friday. After a lead-out by the 31-year-old Dutchman, his teammate Jordi Meeus won the sprint in Neuhausen am Rheinfall with ease.
After the mountain stages earlier this week, it was the sprinters’ turn on Friday. Romain Grégoire, who lost his leader’s jersey on Thursday, did make an attempt to thwart the expected mass sprint.
The Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ rode in the attack for a long time together with his teammate Stefan Küng. When Grégoire dropped out at the front, Küng remained together with Harry Sweeney and Mauro Schmid. But they too had to give up in the final kilometers.
In the sprint, everything went according to plan for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Van Poppel launched the sprint for Meeus, who then left the other sprinters far behind. Davide Ballerini and Lewis Askey finished second and third, while Van Poppel finished sixth.
Nothing changed in the top of the standings. Kévin Vauquelin retained his leader’s jersey, and Julian Alaphilippe and João Almeida follow within a minute. A hilly stage follows on Saturday, and the decisive time trial will take place on Sunday.
Hayter Seizes Power in Belgium
In the Tour of Belgium, there was already a time trial on Friday. Ethan Hayter set the fastest time in Ham. Filippo Ganna had to concede four seconds and finished second. The Dutchman Huub Artz finished fifth.
Hayter also rode Juan Sebastián Molano out of the leader’s jersey, with two stages to go. In the standings, Hayter has a two-second lead over Ganna. Artz is fifth at eighteen seconds, and the Dutchman Axel van der Tuuk is number six.