Søren Kragh Andersen, who had been in the day’s breakaway, attacked in the final kilometres of stage six at the Tour de Suisse today and soloed to the victory.
Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) finished nine seconds down on Andersen as Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) finished in third place. Richie Porte (BMC Racing) meanwhile extended his GC lead after attacking on the final climb to the finish in Gommiswald. Porte finished 12 seconds ahead of the other GC contenders and now leads the Team Sunweb pair of Wilco Kelderman and Sam Oomen by 32″.
“Today was a really special day and I’m super happy with the win,” Andersen said. “To pay back my team for giving me the chance is a really nice feeling. Our coach from the car told me to do my thing and trust my instinct and when the last attack went I decided to go for it.
“This win is a relief, it was a really long sprint for me and I managed to stay in front. I’ve had a lot of opportunities in the past but it never really worked out so I’m super happy that I’ve finally taken a WorldTour win here.”
Team Sunweb coach Marc Reef added: “Today was a super hard day with the finish after a two kilometre climb. We wanted to be in the break if a large group went, and we managed to get Søren in there, who survived as the group became more select. In the final it turned out that the bunch weren’t going to come back and we had enough guys with Wilco, so we decided to go full for it with Søren. Towards the final kilometres the gap went down and Søren attacked to take a fantastic first WorldTour victory.”
