'Anything is possible' - Almeida and Vauquelin's Tour de Suisse duel goes down to final time trial

The Tour de Suisse is set to go down to the wire on Sunday afternoon after Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) put up a spirited defence of his yellow jersey on the penultimate stage to Emmetten. The Frenchman carries a lead of 33 seconds over pre-race favourite João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) into the final uphill time trial to Stockhütte.

Vauquelin moved into the yellow jersey after the stage 5 summit finish at Santa Maria in Calanca, and he was able to resist Almeida’s pressure on the final ascent to Emmetten on stage 7.

Indeed, Vauquelin came close to pulling off stage victory at the summit of the short, sharp climb by unleashing a sprint from distance, but he was overhauled by Almeida and Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) in the closing metres.

That result allowed Almeida to pull back six seconds in time bonuses, but Vauquelin’s greater disappointment on Saturday was at missing out on stage victory.

“I’m really disappointed, because we did a perfect race,” Vauquelin said. “We handled the last two hills really well, and I knew I could win this stage if I got through because I was probably the fastest in the group, I think. Maybe I started a little too early, I cracked a little from a distance, and I was a few metres short.” 

Victory would have given Vauquelin something tangible to take home from the Tour de Suisse, but he remains in contention to become the first French winner of the overall title since Christophe Angolutto’s surprise victory in 1997.

“I saw that João was watching me a lot, trying to make me crack on the last hill, but I really hung on,” said Vauquelin, who was bullish about his prospects in a 10km time trial that looks rather better suited to Almeida.

Vauquelin showed his intent by warming down after Saturday’s stage aboard his time trial bike.

“Anything is possible,” he said. “We don't know how João will recover, and I don't know how I'll be either. What I do know is that it's going to be a battle against myself. I'll have the car behind me screaming, and all my family and friends will be there, so I'm going to give it my all to enjoy it to the fullest and cross the finish line in style.”

Almeida clocked up his second stage win of the week on Saturday and the Portuguese rider has performed strongly to drag himself back into overall contention after conceding more than three minutes on the opening day. A year ago, he also had a chance to overhaul the yellow jersey – teammate Adam Yates – in the final time trial, but he fell short on that occasion.

“At this moment, every second is important,” said Almeida, though he downplayed the idea that he is the favourite to take yellow from Vauquelin.

“No, I don’t think so, he’s also strong in the TT. It’s going to be tough but I’m going to give everything. Although the gap is smaller than it was, it’s still a big gap so for sure the win is not guaranteed.”

Almeida has a 5-1 head-to-head record against Vauquelin in time trials, though the Frenchman showed his potential in the discipline by finishing sixth – two places ahead of him – in the opening week time trial at last year’s Tour de France.

That was a flat, fast effort, however, while Sunday’s stage is a very different test. After a flat opening 500m, riders face the 9.2km climb to Stockhütte, which has a total average gradient of 9%, while the final 5km average just under 10%,

“If you have good legs, it’s amazing and if you don’t have good legs, it’s a nightmare: hopefully my legs are good enough,” Almeida said. “Tomorrow I’ll just go full gas and see how it is on the finish line.”