Diego Ulissi took control of the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse, winning on the uphill in Leukerbad. From 300 metres out, he charged and won for the 30th time in his career.
Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) placed second and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data) third. Ulissi (photo Bettini) moved up the overall, sitting now in eighth at 40 seconds from the new race leader Richie Porte (BMC Racing).
“Today’s win carries much weight, the Tour de Suisse is a prestigious race and it makes me proud to win here” Ulissi said. “I was able to come out of the Giro d’Italia with good condition, I remained concentrated knowing that in Switzerland I’d have stages suited to my characteristics. The stage today was one of those, and I pulled it off.
“I’m going to try to keep fighting all the way through the end of the Tour de Suisse given that on the climbs I feel good and in the time trial I can defend myself.”
Elsewhere, on a superb day for Team Emirates, Simone Consonni sprinted perfectly to earn his first professional win.
The 23-year-old Italian sprinter took charge of the first stage of the Tour of Slovenia, from Lendava to Murska Sabota, 159 km. He avoided two crashes in the last kilometre and topped Matteo Pelucchi (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) on the line.
Thursday’s stage throws up the chance for the climbers in the field to make up some valuable time as the 186km ride features two feared climbs, to the top of Furka and Klausen.
