Suisse stage 6: Andersen wins; Porte builds lead

After a day in the break, riding over two hors categorie climbs, Soren Kragh Andersen won stage 6 at Tour de Suisse Thursday, his first victory of 2018.

While Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) was second and Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) third to the Sunweb rider, overall leader Richie Porte (BMC Racing) attacked from the peloton to tighten his grasp on yellow. He is 32 seconds ahead of Andersen’s teammate Wilco Kelderman after the 186km stage to Gommiswald.

“I think that after the amount of work that the team did for me today, I had to do something. I didn’t really expect to take time like that,” said Porte. “I wasn’t feeling great yesterday but today I had a better day and the team was incredible for me.”

Trek-Segafredo’s Michael Gogl attacked first from the day’s six-man breakaway. He went early on the day’s final categorized climb, with just two kilometers to go.

Andersen responded on the 2.2km hill that averaged 6.6 percent. He caught the fading Austrian rider and rode alone to victory.

Porte ended the day sixth, 27 seconds behind the Danish winner after passing Gogl in the end. None of the other key GC favorites, such as defending champion Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), or Kelderman could follow the Aussie’s searing attack.

The Tour de Suisse takes on one final mountain stage Friday with a summit finish at Arosa after 170 kilometers of racing. After that, Sunday’s stage 9 time trial will be the last chance for a GC shake-up.

“It was good to take a little bit more time on some strong time trialists today,” Porte added. “Tomorrow on paper is maybe better for me and I am super motivated.”