Eddie Dunbar remains in the top 20 overall, and less than one minute off the yellow jersey, at the Tour de Suisse as the race now enters a very hilly phase, concluding with the queen stage on Sunday.
The Irishman, riding for Ineos Grenadiers, finished in the peloton on yesterday's 171km stage 4 from Sankt Urban to Gstaad. He placed 17th on the day and was in the 80-rider peloton that was over five minutes down on the breakaway.
Stefan Bissegger, the 22-year-old Swiss rider with EF Education-Nippo, was in the breakaway and won the stage in a three-up sprint from Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) and Joey Rosskopf (Rally Cycling).
Joel Suter (Switzerland), who was also in the break, took 4th place at 23 seconds. The peloton finished 5:16 down on the stage winner, with Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) taking the bunch sprint for 5th place.
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As all the big favourites were in the main group, there were no major changes overall except for stage winner Bissegger climbing 70 places to 10th overall.
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Bissegger, who had placed 2nd on the opening stage TT, only missed taking the yellow jersey by 39 seconds yesterday. However, the race lead stays with double stage winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix).
Dunbar is 16th in the general classification at 56 seconds, with his team mate Richard Carapaz in 7th at 17 seconds.
Today's 175.2km stage 5 from Gstaad to Leukerbad starts with a cat 1 climb before the race later hits lumpier terrain in the finale with three climbs in the final 40km.
The first of those climbs is just 3.2km at 4.4 per cent but is then followed by the 9km Erschmatt – 8km at 8.4 per cent. The riders will then plummeted down the descent before the final climb to the summit finish, atop the 4.1km Leukerbad at seven per cent.
There are more climbs, and an uphill finish, on Friday before Saturday’s 23.2km stage 7 TT, which is up and down a 9.5km climb at 6.5 per cent. The finale on Sunday features two early cat 1 climbs before the final HC ascent of Gotthardpass. It is 13.2km at 6.7 per cent followed by the descent into the finish.
The terrain over the next four days looks tailor made for Dunbar and Carapaz, though Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) is in 2nd overall at just one second. Max Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) looks in especially good shape so far and he is just six seconds down overall.
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