Richard Carapaz shows strong Tour de France ambitions atop Swiss Summit

Ecuadorian rider Richard Carapaz won stage five of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday to take the overall lead in the race at a summit finish at Leukerbad while previous race leader Mathieu van der Poel went away in the breakaway

In a statement of intent for the Tour de France which starts in two weeks, Ineos' Carapaz showed dazzling form to seize the overall leader's yellow jersey with a gutsy stage win.

The 2019 Giro d'Italia winner caught Astana's Jakob Fuglsang on the final ascent and edged a two-man dash for the line.

Thanks to his stage win, Carapaz now leads the race by 26 seconds from Fuglsang.

World champion Julian Alaphilippe would have been in third at 33sec, but he was docked 20 seconds for taking on water from his team car in the final 10km, which is a safety offence.

Julian Alaphilippe said "I was à bloc, I needed to drink, and my director said I could take a last bidon, but at the moment I was taking it he hesitated a bit. He had just received the order from the commissaire – apparently it was no longer authorized. I’d just thrown my bidon, I needed to drink, so I took it. Apparently I’ve been penalized but that doesn’t change anything at all."

Carapaz is being supported at the Tour de Suisse by Ineos teammates Rohan Dennis, Luke Rowe and Eddie Dunbar.

"We came here thinking about preparing for the Tour. Of course, we wanted to try and win this," said Carapaz.

"We wanted to think about the general classification of course and the possibility of winning a stage was there. I did both so I'm happy."

"We know the main objective is the Tour but if we can win this it's good."

Ineos have yet to name their final line-up for the Tour, but Carapaz as co-captain with Geraint Thomas looks likely.

Alpecin's Dutch sensation Mathieu van der Poel started the day in yellow after two stage wins so far and attacked from 155km out, only giving up the fight 30km from the line.

Frenchman Alaphilippe was unable to follow Carapaz when he made his move on the penultimate climb but crossed the finish line 37sec adrift of the winning pair.

Esteban Chaves of Bike Exchange actually led the race over that penultimate climb before missing a corner and running his bike into someone's front garden on the descent, while under pressure from the chasing Fuglsang.

The 6th stage of the Tour de Suisse heads over Switzerland’s highest road pass, the Nufenen Pass – a warm-up, as it were and the KOM. For the 36th time in the history of the Tour de Suisse the race crosses the Lukmanier Pass, the second KOM, before the 6th stage finishes this year in Disentis-Sedrun.

VIDEO: 2021 Tour de Suisse Stage 5 Highlights

2021 Tour de Suisse Stage 5 Top 10

1          Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers        4:01:52
2          Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana-Premier Tech
3          Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-up Nation  0:0:39
4          Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Team BikeExchange
5          Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo
6          Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgroh
7          Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep
8          Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Team Qhubeka Assos
9          Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Team BikeExchange      0:0:49
10        Sam Oomen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma       0:01:22

2021 Tour de Suisse GC after Stage 5

1          Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers        16:42:50
2          Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana-Premier Tech   0:0:26
3          Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe        0:0:38
4          Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep         0:0:53
5          Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education-Nippo    0:01:11
6          Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Team BikeExchange    0:01:31
7          Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-up Nation  0:01:32
8          Sam Oomen (Ned) Jumbo-Visma       0:02:19
9          Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Team BikeExchange      0:02:22
10        Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Team Qhubeka Assos       0:03:10