João Almeida swept to a memorable long-distance solo victory on stage four of the Tour de Suisse to Piuro (Valchiavenna).
On a sweltering day, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider rode away from the front group on the day's only major climb, and held off his pursuers for 49km to take a 40-second win.
Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) – one of those chasing down Almeida in the second group – held on to his yellow jersey after losing a minute in total.
Portuguese rider Almeida may have benefited from a lack of consistent commitment in the chasing group, but one of its number, Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) said afterwards, "I don't know if it would have made a difference, he was very strong."
The chase group was led in by Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), who climbed 11 places into the GC top-10 – same as Almeida, who climbed from 18th place to 7th.
Other GC hopefuls also made inroads on Grégoire's lead, including Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), who gained 22 seconds a moved up to fourth.
Afterwards a relaxed but rather taciturn Almeida said he was happy with the win, and that he would continue the pursuit of yellow.
Asked how much he suffered, he replied. "Too much for sure. It was a hard effort. Good team-work, it was nice to finish it off.
"There's still a long way to go," he said, in regard to the GC. "It's a lot of time to get back but I'm happy with the stage win – we're going to enjoy this one."
Asked whether he ought to now be considered the GC favourite, he said: "I have to disagree, as it's up to me to take back [the time] and it's going to be a super-hard task.But yeah, we never give up."
Tomorrow's stage to Santa Maria in Calanca included four cat-one climbs, including the summit finish, and is set to be one of the hardest in the race. Asked whether he would be continuing to take time, Almeida said: "Well we have to try, if we don't try we'll never know."
How it happened
This was a 193km due-south Alpine trek that took them, ultimately over the Italian border. Starting at yesterday's stage finish town of Heiden, and culminating in Piuro, Lombardy.
With a full 47km from the crest of the one major climb of the Splügenpass, the stage looked for all the world as though it could just as easily be a breakaway day as a one for the GC.
However, it was only with a number of fits and starts that a breakaway was finally established – halfway to the foot of the mountain – by the trio of Andrew August (Ineos Grenadiers), Georg Zimmerman and Tudor's Larry Warbasse.
They were joined a short while later by five more riders, swelling the group to eight –
Nielson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Thomas Gloag (Visma-Lease a Bike), Sébastian Grignard (Lotto) and Warbasse's Tudor team-mate Marius Mayrhofer.
It was a useful bunch, but the GC riders behind – especially Almeida and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team – weren't in the mood to let them run free, and they were absorbed in dribs and drabs on the slopes of the Splügenpass.
This set up Almeida perfectly and with a little help from 20-year-old team-mate Jan Christen, he upped the pace to breaking point before, with little fanfare, riding the final stragglers off his back wheel 2km before the summit.
He wasn't seen again until the finish.
Results
Tour de Suisse 2025, stage four, Heiden > Piuro (Valchiavenna)
1. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 4:10:19
2. Oscar Onley (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +40s
3. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +42s
4. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, +1:00
5. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
6. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, both s.t.
7. Ilan Van Wilder (Bel) Soudal-Quick Step, +1:02
8. Clément Champoussin (Fra) XDS-Astana
9. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Tudor
10. Lennard Kämna (Ger) Lidl-Trek, all s.t.
General classification
1. Romain Grégoire (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, in 15:37:20
2. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkea-B&B Hotels, +25s
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, +29s
4. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +56s
5. Lennard Kämna (Ger) Lidl-Trek, +1:20
6. Pablo Castrillo (Esp) Movistar Team, at s.t.
7. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +2:07
8. Oscar Onley (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +2:53
9. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +3:23
10. Clément Champoussin (Fra) XDS-Astana, +3:25
