Surprise victory for Larry Warbasse at Tour de Suisse
Jun 13 2017 11:27 pm CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSAqua Blue Sport's Larry Warbasse has taken the victory at the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse. The American got the most important win so far for his team after being the sole survivor of the day's breakaway.
The fourth stage of the Swiss Tour was the first for the climbers. The riders covered 150.2 kilometers that included two categorized climbs: The Col des Mosses of the first category and the Villars-sur-Ollon (HC).
After the 14th kilometer, four riders attacked from the peloton. Lars Boom (LottoNL-Jumbo), Lawrence Warbasse (Aqua Blue Sport), Antoine Duchesne (Dimension Data), Nick van der Lijcke (Rompoot-Nederlanse Loterij) created a gap of more than 8 minutes with the pack.
During the ascent to the Col des Mosses, Boom was dropped and was caught by the peloton on the descent. Van der Lijcke also struggled for a moment but was soon able to get back to the front.
In the first kilometers of the last climb, Duchesne was also dropped and was followed by van der Lijcke, leaving Warbasse alone at the head of the race. The climb broke the peloton and left many riders behind including Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo).
The front of the reduced pack witnessed many attacks of climbers like Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Simon Spilak (Katusha Alpecin), Damiano Caruso (BMC), Mathias Frank and Domenico Pozzovivo(AG2R-La Mondiale) and Marc Soler (Movistar), who at the end formed a group to catch Warbasse.
Near the top, Frank left the rest of the chasers behind but was unable to catch the American. The rider of Aqua Blue Sport crossed the finish line 40 seconds before a compact chasing group and seconds behind them Soler and Lopez also arrived.
Caruso took the leader's jersey and Kruijswijk climbed to second position at only 15 seconds from the Italian.
