At the top of Emmeten, João Almeida responded to the attack on Kévin Vauquelin to win the 7th stage of the Tour de Switzerland and resume a second handful to the wearer of the yellow jersey of the general classification on the eve of the final time trial.
João Almeida has not yet said his last word. The leader of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team has kept its chances of winning the Tour de Switzerland by winning the 7th stage this Saturday in Emmeten, at the same time taking up a few seconds in Kévin Vauquelin. With a hundred kilometers before the foot of the first of the three difficulties listed, the escape candidates did not hide very long.
However, the peloton did not leave a release voucher in the first kilometers, notably with the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team at the maneuver. Taking advantage of the chaos linked to a break, Bart Lemmen launched a blow but it was his teammate Tiesj Benoot who knew how to slip into a group of seven runners alongside the inevitable Quinn Simmons, winner of the 3rd stage of this Tour de Suisse. Aleksandr Vlasov, Junior Lecerf or Hugo Houle also took place in this breakaway.
His training made it possible to appease the peloton, which reformed. However, the approach of Schwändi’s slopes did not allow this breakaway to take a very important lead on a peloton which kept them on a leash at less than three minutes. A first ascent that allowed Aleksandr Vlasov to consolidate his boute climber. The gap between the breakaway and the peloton then began to decrease in the valley connecting the foot of the Schwëndi descent and the foot of the Ascension of Bürgenstock.
Simmons still at the front
With the peloton returned under the minute with a little more than 20 kilometers to go, Quinn Simmons decided to raise the tone from the first slopes and the champion of the United States quickly found himself at the top of the race. The peloton then saw the Tudor team impose a very intense pace to promote the chances of Julian Alaphilippe. Which hurt many runners. Kévin Vauquelin and João Almeida were not trapped, following the acceleration of the teammates of the former double world champion. Six runners were able to junction with Quinn Simmons with Oscar Onley who was the only one to benefit from the support of a teammate in the person of Frank Van Den Broek.
The Dutchman put himself at the service of his leader by imposing the tempo in the last hectometers of the ascent of Bürgenstock. A group which then reduced to six elements with Quinn Simmons who cut his effort to help Lennard Kämna, present in a group pointed at around twenty seconds, to return to the head of the race before the final ascent towards Emmeten. Except that the group of favorites took advantage of the roads along the lake of the four cantons to grab a few more seconds before approaching the 3,900 meters of the final rise of this 7th stage. Frank Van der Broek then put his last forces to launch Oscar Onley but João Almeida imposed his tempo.
Almeida could not let go of Vauquelin
His goal was to put Kévin Vauquelin and Julian Alaphilippe in difficulty for the general classification. Being the least dangerous for the wearer of the yellow jersey, Felix Gall was the first to plant a comic strip and he was not immediately hunting. What made Ben O’Connor react to a third level of the race when João Almeida tried to motivate his opponents to take relays behind the Austrian. While the runner of the Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale team saw his meager advance fade in the face of the effort of the Portuguese, Julian Alaphilippe was the first to yield with just over a kilometer to go.
However, the floating in the head quartet allowed the Tudor team to return to energy when Kévin Vauquelin observed this in the last position of the leading group. This allowed him to launch an attack 400 meters from the goal in the back of his opponents but he left too far. At the sprint, João Almeida had the last word and offered himself a second stage victory on this Tour de Switzerland before Oscar Onley and Kévin Vauquelin. The Arkea-B & B Hotels team runs, however, the head of the general classification on the eve of the final time trial. He will address these last ten kilometers with a margin of 33 seconds on João Almeida, who dislodged Julian Alaphilippe from second place for eight seconds.
Cycling – UCI World Tour / Tour de Switzerland
7th step – Neuhausen Am Rheinfall> Emmeten (207.3km) – Saturday June 21, 2025
1- João Almeida (by / UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in 4h38’25 ”
2- Oscar onley (GBR / Picnic-Postnl) Mt
3- Please ask MT proues and hotels
4- Felix Gall (AUT/Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) at 4 ”
5- Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Tudor) at 8 ”
6- Felix Grosschartner (AUT / UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at 1’07 ”
7- Joseph Blackmore (GBR/Israel-Prime Tech) at 1’07 ”
8- Ilan Van Wilder (Bel / Sudal-Stap-Stap) at 1’07 ”
9- Clément Champoussin (Fra/XDS-Astana) at 1’07 ”
10- Lennard Kämna (All / Lidl-Trek) at 1’07 ”
…
General classification after 7 stages (out of 8)
1- Kevin Vauquelin (Fra / Arkea-B & B Hotels) in 29:00’55 ‘
2- João Almeida (by / UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at 33 ”
3- Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Tudor) at 41 ”
4- Oscar onley (GBR / Picnic-Postnl) at 1’19 ”
5- Felix Gall (AUT/Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale) at 2’28 ”
6- Lennard Kämna (All / Lidl-Trek) at 2’55 ”
7- Ben O’Connor (Aus / Jayco-Alula) at 3’27 ”
8- Pablo Castrillo (ESP / Movistar) at 4’27 ”
9- Ilan Van Wilder (Bel / Sudal-Quit-Stap) at 4’28 ”
10- Clément Champoussin (FRA/XDS-Astana) at 6’05 ”
…
