Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) won stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse with a powerful sprint on the uphill finish in Rüschlikon. The Belgian delivered a well-timed effort on the rise to the line, holding off Stevie Williams (Israel Premier Tech) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) to claim victory ahead of a reduced front group.
Bettiol's third place was enough to put him into the yellow jersey after overnight leader Yves Lampaert (Soudal-QuickStep) was among the many riders distanced when the peloton split up on the punchy finale around Rüschlikon.
Adam Yates (UAE Emirates), seventh on the stage, picked up a handful of seconds on his general classification rivals on a stage that saw the peloton fracture on the succession of punchy climbs in the finale.
The day belonged to Nys, however, as the 21-year-old offered up the latest demonstration of his prodigious gifts with his sixth victory of the 2024 season. Nys had arrived in Switzerland buoyed by his sparkling displays in Hungary and Norway in May, but he suffered a setback when he crashed at the GP Aargau on Thursday.
The drive back to the hotel after that race involved a detour to reconnoitre the finale of stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse, and Nys was armed with that knowledge on Tuesday afternoon. He was well placed throughout the finale here, where the bunch was whittled down considerably by the category 3 climbs of Aegst am Albis and the Albipass.
"I was so disappointed about the crash in Gippingen, it was so difficult to get over it because I knew I was close to winning there," Nys said. "But then on the way to the hotel after the race, we did the recon of this stage and I tried to put my mind in the right direction."
Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) made a game bid for the stage victory with a powerful attack on the unclassified climb with 3km remaining, and the Swiss rider buttressed his advantage with a swooping descent.
The long drag to the line proved his undoing, however, and Hirschi was swept up by Decathlon-AG2R's forcing on Paul Lapeira's behalf in the final kilometre. Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) sensed an opportunity shortly afterwards and opened his effort from a distance, but Nys was always wise to the danger.
Nys proceeded to unfurl a crisp acceleration in the final 200 metres, and although Williams and Bettiol battled to get on terms, they had to yield to his strength, while Roger Adria (Bora-Hansgrohe) beat Lapeira to fourth.
"I've been dreaming about this stage for a long time already," Nys said. "Yesterday I was struggling a lot and today as well. I was not feeling good on the bike, and I was really with a bit of an annoying feeling all day, but the guys pulled me through it and I started to believe in it."
In the overall standings, Bettiol takes yellow with a six-second lead over Ethan Hayter (Ineos), Kelderman and Williams, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) fifth overall at nine seconds. Adam Yates gained three seconds on the other GC contenders to move up to 8th overall.
How it unfolded
With a flat start followed by a rugged finale, this was always likely to be a day of two parts at the Tour de Suisse, and so it proved. The opening phase of the day was animated by a five-man moving featuring Luca Jenni, Christoph Janssen (Swiss Cycling), Roberto Carlos González (Team Corratec-Vini Fantini), Johan Jacobs (Movistar) and Fabian Lienhard (Groupama-FDJ).
They established a maximum lead of four minutes after breaking clear in the opening kilometres of the stage, and they remained in front on the first of the classified climbs to Oberwil-Lieli with a little over 35km to go.
After Jenni and González had contested the points there, Jacobs pressed clear alone to pick up the twin bonus sprints in the Tissot Kilometre. The Swiss rider pointed to a bracelet in memory of the late Gino Mäder as he picked up the day's prize.
By then, the peloton was closing in swiftly upon the day's escapees, and Jacobs, the last man standing, was swept up ahead of the category 3 ascents of Aegst am Albis and the Albipass in the finale.
EF Education-EasyPost and Visma-Lease a Bike were prominent in setting the tempo on those climbs, and their efforts doomed the established sprinters, most of whom were jettisoned out the back once the gradient began to bite.
The selection came from the back rather than the front on the climbs, however, despite the attempts of Brandon Rivera (Ineos) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R) to break clear on the upper portion of the Albipass.
Adam Yates produced a striking cameo to bring Paret-Peintre's move to heel with a steady acceleration of his own, and the Briton led the reduced bunch over the top of the Albipass with a shade over 10km to go.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos) looked to force the pace on the descent and the Briton briefly succeeded in stretching out the bunch before he desisted.
The next man to try his luck was Hirschi, who looked to pre-empt the uphill sprint by launching a stinging attack on the unclassified climb with a little over 3km remaining. The Swiss rider succeeded in opening a decent gap on the climb and, despite a near miss with an errant dog walker, he carried a buffer of six seconds into the final kilometre before he was eventually reeled in.
"It was nice to be in the final in my home race, I saw it as a good opportunity," Hirschi said. "But the problem was maybe that I was alone. It might have been better with two or three guys, but behind they were organised as well."
The drag to the line that followed was about strength and timing. Not for the first time this season, Nys had both qualities in abundance.
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