There were still legs to that ending: João wins
After a Friday stage that essentially served to gain strength for the weekend of decisions, João Almeida started this Saturday with the certainty that victory in the Tour de Suisse was still a tangible reality. Finishing in the peloton and maintaining third place in the general classification, 39 seconds behind Kévin Vauquelin's yellow jersey, helped — but the main help was no longer present.
More than 100 kilometres from the end of Friday's stage, Jan Christen, a Swiss cyclist from UAE Emirates who was one of João Almeida's main supporters and who played a crucial role in the Portuguese rider's victory in the fourth stage, ended up abandoning the race. Hours later, the team confirmed that Jan Christen had indeed ended his participation in the Tour de Suisse "after feeling unwell during the stage" , without linking the decision to the violent fall suffered by the cyclist on the first day of the competition.
Now, this Saturday, the Tour de Suisse completed its seventh and penultimate stage, covering 207.3 kilometres between Neuhausen am Rheinfall and Emmetten, with three mountain passes, two of which were second category and one of which was third category, all in the second half of the route, with the third coinciding with the finish line. In a stage in which it was necessary to wait for some time to see a proper escape, a group of seven athletes escaped around 180 kilometres from the finish line, with João Almeida staying in an elevated area of the peloton — and always with Kévin Vauquelin, the yellow jersey, in the shadow.
The pace picked up significantly with around 40 kilometres to go, when UAE Emirates and Tudor forced the peloton to accelerate and began to close the gap to the front group: Julian Alaphilippe led the chase group, without João Almeida and Kévin Vauquelin losing sight, and survivor Quinn Simmons was eventually caught. With just over 13 kilometres to go and before the final climb, the Portuguese cyclist was fully integrated into the new escape group, with Vauquelin, Alaphilippe and also Felix Gall, Oscar Onley and Frank van den Broek.
Joao Almeida is already thinking about the ITT tomorrow????️↗️. #tds2025 #tourdesuisse pic.twitter.com/O5WmCzFN0V
— Tour de Suisse (@tds) June 21, 2025
Ready???? @JooAlmeida98 #Tourdesuisse #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/NnTbG5I3wU
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) June 21, 2025
With just four kilometres to go and the climb in full swing, Frank van den Broek fell behind and Felix Gall was the first to attack, but without much ability to hold onto the lead. João Almeida completed the final metres with a lot of Portuguese support on the verges, amid shouts of “go, João” and several national flags, and managed to beat an impressive sprint from Kévin Vauquelin to seal his second victory in the Tour de Suisse, gaining six seconds on the yellow jersey and moving up to second place in the overall standings, now 33 seconds behind the Frenchman.
Kévin Vauquelin was only third, behind Oscar Onley and ahead of Felix Gall and Julian Alaphilippe. The Tour de Suisse ends this Sunday with a 10-kilometre time trial where João Almeida will be looking to achieve his third triumph of the season after having already won the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie.
????????? YES!!! @JooAlmeida98 ????????? wins Stage 7 in Emmetten, his second at this year's #TourdeSuisse ??????????!
One final time trial awaits tomorrow #Botalume ???? #WeAreUAE pic.twitter.com/CJj2Xaw0IB
— @UAE-TeamEmirates (@TeamEmiratesUAE) June 21, 2025
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