Tour de Suisse review: Lopez becomes first Colombian champion

With only an 8-second cushion between himself and Andrew Talansky, and a super-short stage of only 57km, Astana’s Miguel Angel Lopez defended his yellow jersey by attacking hard on the only remaining climb of the stage to become the first Colombian to win the Tour de Suisse. Movistar’s Ion Izaguirre and Giant’s Warren Barguil rounded out the final podium in what was a nip-and-tuck GC battle all week.

Rider of the Race

It was a tough Tour de Suisse this year, with 8 different stage winners out of 9 stages and the leader’s jersey changing shoulders in the second half of the week almost every day, so it’s not that easy to pick a rider of the race. But for sheer guts, for taking the race by the scruff of its neck and believing attack is the best defence, for me it was Miguel Angel Lopez. Quietly climbing up the standings with some excellent stage results (particularly second places in stages 7 and 8), the 22-year-old Astana rider is only in his second year as a pro but he stayed calm and cool – even on treacherously wet descents! – and put together a fabulous overall win. We’ll be seeing a lot more of this guy in the coming seasons!

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), 2016 Tour de Suisse champion (Image: Official website)

All change

Of the 9 stages in this year’s Tour de Suisse, we had 8 different stage winners: Fabian Cancellara (Trek Segafredo), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) Max Richeze (Etixx-QuickStep), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Pieter Weening (Roompot), Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Ion Izaguirre (Movistar) and Jarlinson Pantano (IAM). Sagan was the only one with two stage wins.

Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2r) had a day in yellow; Tour de Suisse 2016 (Image: Official website)

The race also had Cancellara, Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto-Soudal), Sagan, Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2r), Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Barguil and Lopez in yellow.

#IAMEMOSH!

You all know how much I love winners who are overcome with tears. Well, Jarlinson Pantano certainly won over my heart today when he kept his nerve and pulled off the final stage win and then promptly started sobbing uncontrollably. Once a rider starts getting used to winning, the chances of him or her bursting into tears gets slimmer, so it’s always good to be reminded just how much it means to guys who are still new to this winning lark.

.@jarlinsonpantan @IAM_Cycling wins the final stage of @tds 🚴💨🇨🇴Vamos Colombia!!#TourDeSuisse #TDS @pau13_3 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/k6TAyJy2d5

— SocialPeloton® (@SocialPeloton) June 19, 2016

Le roi de Suisse

He made a lot of noise at the beginning of the week when he won two stages, including one monster sprint uphill in the rain, and with that he became the undisputed king of the Tour de Suisse with a record 13 stage victories. Yes, it’s Peter Sagan.