Despite losing the yellow jersey on Thursday, the Groupama-FDJ cycling team wasn’t planning on taking it easy on the Tour de Suisse. This was proven from the start of stage 6 on Friday, when Stefan Küng and Romain Grégoire both joined a four-man breakaway. A tough fight immediately took place between the leading quarter and the peloton, and the Frenchman gave his all before leaving his breakaway mates to tackle the final hour of racing. The trio then put up a stunning fight against the bunch, and it wasn’t until the flamme rouge that Stefan Küng’s attempt came to an end. Lewis Askey then perfectly approached the sprint and took third place. Another quite busy day.
The day after the queen stage of the Tour de Suisse, which proved too much for Romain Grégoire and his yellow jersey, the peloton set off on Friday for 186 kilometres on Swiss soil. While the pure sprinters were hoping to finally make their mark, the hilly start to the race suggested a different scenario for this day. The Groupama-FDJ cycling team clearly wanted to pursue this second option. “I said last night that we were going to continue with our original ambition of winning stages, we were ready to get stuck in, and Stefan did that from the start with Romain,” said William. “We immediately found ourselves with two riders in a breakaway of four. This shows the attitude of the team.” “I think that if the stage wasn’t at home, I wouldn’t have gone in the breakaway, because my legs were already hurting at the start,” said Stefan with a smile. “It wasn’t planned to have Romain in front either. Once in the breakaway, I told him he could sit up after giving everything the last days. He told me: no, I’ll just ride as long as I can.”
“Romain always gives 100%, whether for himself or for the team”, Stefan Küng
Unfortunately for the leading men, the breakaway didn’t get bigger in the climbs located from kilometre 40 to kilometre 80. “It was the only opportunity for the sprinters today,” explained Stefan. “You could already see at the start that quite a few teams were interested in the bunch sprint. We heard the action from behind, and if they would have been able to get a little gap, we could have waited, but that wasn’t the case.” “Most of the day was headwind, so we definitely preferred more numbers, but it was impossible for us to stop and wait for counterattacks, otherwise we risked the breakaway of being caught,” William confirmed. “This was unfortunate, but the peloton didn’t want more than four riders at the front. The gap didn’t allow us to wait for the chasers, so we were committed to do our best with four riders.” After it went up to three minutes at best, the breakaway’s advantage was already down to two minutes after the day’s main climbs, with 100 kilometres still to go.
The fierce battle between the leaders and the peloton therefore animated the entire stage. “It’s challenging on these big, open roads, but we knew that if we got to km 145 with a reasonable gap, anything was still possible, since we’d have a tailwind all the way to the finish,” explained William. “Romain obviously had some fatigue in the legs after the week he’s had, but I told him that his finish line was at that particular point and that he had to give his absolute maximum until there. He actually pulled a big five-minute turn before being dropped, which increased the gap. Kudos to Romain. He’s a great rider, but also a great person and teammate.” “He did a big pull to finish his work off”, added Stefan. “It shows his mentality and personality. He’s a great guy and he always gives 100%, whether for himself or for the team.” The young Frenchman was dropped 44 kilometres from the finish, then Stefan Küng, Mauro Schmid and Harrison Sweeny gave their all towards Neuhausen am Rheinfall, while several teams were still intensely working together at the front of the peloton.
“The real satisfaction is how the team turned around,” William Green
The gap nevertheless dropped to one minute with thirty kilometres to go, and the seconds continued to go in the pack’s advantage, despite the constant commitment at the front. “It might seem weird, but I was able to find my legs a bit during the stage and I felt like I could really push on towards the end,” said Stefan. “Everyone was working together really well, we didn’t have to speak to each other, everyone was pushing as hard as he could. It was a high pace all day, we could never recover, and on these rolling roads, the peloton was inevitably at an advantage. As long as you’re up there and have something in the legs, you leave it all out there.” The breakaway managed to keep thirty seconds with fifteen kilometres to go, twenty seconds at eight kilometres, and still had ten seconds going into the final 3,000 metres of the day. It was only under the flamme rouge that the peloton finally managed to catch the three survivors of a breath-taking breakaway. “Like on the Omloop, Stefan came up one kilometre short,” said William. “It’s a big disappointment, especially since we were close to his home and his family was there to support him.”
The long-awaited sprint eventually came, and Lewis Askey then got in the mix. “We rode a perfect race,” said Lewis. “The plan was to put Stephan in the breakaway, and it nearly worked. It actually ended up being a hard day in the peloton because of him which was perfect for me. It meant the sprinters were quite fatigued. When we came into the final hill, in the last kilometre, I actually wanted to attack but the speed was so fast, and it was quite hectic. I moved up but I was maybe too close to the front too soon. I got a little boxed in when Red Bull came with some speed, but I had strong legs in the sprint and managed to come back to third place, so I’m happy with my day. Normally at the end of a week like this, I’m on my knees, but I’m actually feeling quite good, so it’s nice to see that progress year after year”. “It’s a great performance from Lewis, especially since he didn’t have much support in the final,” added William. “He’s in great shape and took our fifth top 5 finish at this Tour de Suisse. The real satisfaction of the day is how the team turned around from yesterday. I said in the briefing that this was a new Tour de Suisse, that we had to have fun and race our bikes. And that’s what everyone did.”
