While a big argument between the favorites was logically envisaged on the occasion of the first meeting with the mountain of the Tour de Suisse, this is not the expected scenario which took shape at the summit of the Saint-Gotthard pass , judged at more than 2000 meters altitude.
Having left in a morning escape, Torstein Traeen (28 years old) came to thwart the plans of the big names by resisting until the end to win the first professional victory of his career. The Norwegian from the Bahrain-Victorious team was twenty-three seconds ahead of the Briton Adam Yates, who becomes the new leader of the event ahead of his teammate Joao Almeida and the Dane Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), outgoing winner of the Tout de Swiss.
Adam Yates tried his luck solo
During this first day in the mountains, it all started with a breakaway made up of the French Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), the Norwegian Torstein Traeen (Bahrain-Victorious), the Belgian Gerben Kuypers (Intermarché-Wanty ), the Australian Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and the Swiss Roland Thalmann (Tudor), Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Decueninck), Jan Sommer (Swiss Cycling).
Thanks to a strong favorable wind and perfect understanding, the fugitives were able to maintain a comfortable lead throughout the day to finally reach the edge of the final ramp with more than five minutes ahead of the peloton. If the group of leading men logically exploded from the first percentages of the Saint-Gothard, Traeen decided to leave alone about ten kilometers from the summit. While the main favorites finally attempted a first offensive move eight miles from the goal, Yates set off alone in pursuit of the courageous Norwegian of the day. In vain, since the Briton failed by around twenty seconds to win the stage.
This Thursday, the Tour de Suisse has another appointment with the summits and a 4th stage scheduled between Ambi and Cari (148 km).
