Tour de Suisse 2015 Stage 5: Pinot takes Queen Stage and GC lead

The Queen Stage in Switzerland leads to an elevation of 2,669 metres after a 12.1 kilometres closing climb at 10.1%. It's there the race explodes. Pinot attacks with 2 kilometres left and soloes to victory. Leader Dumoulin is 1'37" and so Pinot is the new leader. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 5th stage Tour de Suisse

1. Thibaut Pinot (fra)
2. Domenico Pozzovivo (ita) + 0.34
3. Simon Spilak (slo) + 0.37
4. Miguel Angel Lopez (col) + 0.43
5. Geraint Thomas (gbr) + s.t.
6. Jakob Fuglsang (den) + 1.15
7. Jan Hirt (cze) + 1.18
8. Sergio Henao (col) + 1.29
9. Stefan Denifl (aut) + 1.31
10. Tom Dumoulin (nld) + 1.37

GC after stage 5
1. Thibaut Pinot (fra)
2. Geraint Thomas (gbr) + 0.47
3. Simon Spilak (slo) + 0.50
4. Domenico Pozzovivo (ita) + 0.55
5. Miguel Angel Lopez (col) + 1.07
6. Jakob Fuglsang (den) + 1.27
7. Tom Dumoulin (nld) + 1.32
8. Steve Morabito (swi) + 2.29
9. Sebastian Reichenbach (swi) + 2.43
10. Sergio Henao (col) + 2.46

Race report
Thomas De Gendt, Przemislaw Niemic, Gregory Rast, Stefan Denifl, Matthias Brändle, Benjamin King, Stefan Schumacher and Mirco Selvaggi are in the break of the day. They race to an advantage of over 10 minutes.

When cresting the Bielerhöhe, a HC-climb peaking at an elevation of 2,036 metres, the gap is down to 7’45”. KOM-leader Denifl takes 20 points, De Gendt 15 and Niemic 10.

Down in the valley the gap balloons again to 11 minutes, but it goes down to 5 minutes when Astana takes control in the pack.

At the lower flanks of the closing climb Denifl attacks en he soloes upfront, while leader Dumoulin is dropped from the pack with 9.5 km’s to go. More and more riders are dropped when Spilak sets the pace and eventually gets clear. But in the end he doesn’t make it.

Denifl is strong but with 2 km’s left a group with Majka, Henao, Thomas, Pinot, Fuglsang and Pozzovivo is closing in. Just half a mniute left fo the Austrian. Then Pinot attacks and heads for the front of the race. He leaves Denifl and no only soloes to victory but to the yellow jersey also.

Leader Tom Dumoulin loses 1’37”. Giving his strong time trial skill he is still a force to be reckoned with. The same holds true for Geraint Thomas, who is second in the overall, 0’47” down on Pinot.