Quinn Simmons’ leader on Trek- Segafredo, Mattias Skjelmose, finished third on Stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday, slipping to second in the general classification.
Felix Gall of AG2R Citroen Team won the fourth stage and took over the GC lead in the process. Gall had a 2-second lead over Skjelmose and a 16-second lead over Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step). Evenepoel finished one second before of Skjelmose and 1:02 after Gall on Wednesday.
On the fifth stage on Thursday, however, Skjelmose retook the GC lead with a second-place finish on the day. Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates won the 211-kilometer stage in 5 hours, 23 minutes and 1 second. Skjelmose finished 54 seconds later while Gall finished eighth, four seconds after Skjelmose, to move into second in the GC. Ayuso’s win helped him move up three spots in the GC to third (+:18). Evenepoel slid one spot to fourth in the GC (+:46).
Wilco Kelderman of Team Jumbo-Visma, meanwhile, moved up 35 spots to seventh in the GC on Stage 3. Kelderman moved up two more spots on Stage 4 and then slid back one on Stage 5 to sixth, 1:16 behind Skjelmose. Wout Van Aert of Jumbo-Visma still has a tight grip on the points jersey with 42, 16 more than Skjelmose in second.
While helping Skjelmose get to wear the yellow GC leader’s jersey, Simmons finished 55th on Stage 4, but moved up two spots to 44th in the GC.
On Stage 5 Thursday, Simmons crossed 24th, 4:49 after Ayuso. The result helped him move up another 10 spots in the GC to 34th out of 150 cyclists (+26:30).
Stage 6 on Friday will be the longest of the tour, 215.3 kilometers. The cyclists will then race 183.5 kilometers on Saturday before concluding the tour with an individual time trial on Sunday.
