Hello and welcome t🀅o our live coverage of stage 4 of the 2025 Tour de Suisse

Today is the first of two key back-to-back mountain stages which will likely provide a major shakeup of the GC classification. The standout ascent today is a single Cat.1 climb the 8.8 kilometre Splügenpass. But if that distance doesn't sound too bad, a quick glance at the stage profile shows that in fact the climbing before the Splugenpass kicks off starts a mere 35 kilometres earlier. The route actually takes the riders from 650 metres above sealevel at km🌳 97 to o🧜ver 2,200 metres at the top of the Cat.1 ascent at km 146. So that's a rather bigger challenge.

Racing is set to start at 1210 CET, but the riders will startﷺ a lengthy 11.1km neutralised section of the course at 1150 through the streets of the start town, Heiden.

The first news story of the day has already broken. According to In🦩eos Grenadiers, Geraint Thomas, a former overall winner back in 2022 - which was, in fact, the most recent victory of his career - and second in 2015, has opted for a DNS after yesterday's mid-stage crash.

Meantime here's a reminder of the current GC standings, court♒esy of

Here's our full report on Geraint Thomas' crash and subsequent DNS, as the Welsh star builds towards the Tour de France in the final year of his career.
Geraint Thomas abandons Tour de Suisse as 'precautionary measure' after stage 3 crash

Just under 10 minutes now until the n🌜eutralised section of today💫's racing gets underway

A reminder of the classification leaders just before the ball gets rolling for real...

Race leader: Romain Gr&eac🎃ute;goire (Groupama-FDJ)

Points: Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ)

Mountains: Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlAla)

BYR: Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ)

Teams: Movistar

Julian ♊Alaphilippe (Tudor) with a new fri🅰end at the stage 4 start

Stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse from Heiden - Borgonuovo di Piuro is officially underway. Only 193.2 kilometres left to race…

Already some early attacks...

What's on the menu on stage 4 of the 2025Tour de Suisse

Km 128.5: Climb: Sufers - Cat.3, 3.4km at 5.7%

Km 137: Sprint: Splügen

Km 146: Climb: Splügenpass - Cat.1, 8.8km at 7.3%

Km 185: Sprint: Chiavenna

Km 193: Finish: Borgonuovo di Piuro

H🌊ere's a map of the race route for today. Essentially a long run south up into the Alps, skirting round the western side of Austria and then Lichtenstein before heading up the Splügenpass and into Italy at its summit. After that, it's a long old drop down to the finish in Borgonuovo di Piuro, although there's a bit of a grind up to the line 🌼itself, 2.6km at 2.8%.

Pelotonඣ is still all together after four kilometres of racing, despite some early ꦕattacks

Weather is warm and dry at the moment - a balmy 21ºC, although it l'ikely get a mite colder when the stage ♔hits the Alps

3,024 metres of vertical climbing today, by the way, of which the𓃲 peloton have already done all o🦂f 32 metres, so there's a fair bit to come.

Split in the bunch.

178kms to go

Bunch back together

Abandon for Pelayo Sánchez (Movistar), winner o🐬f a stage of the Giro d'Italia last year when he outpowered Julian Alaphilippe.

Another three rider♕s try and go clear, but still nothing sticking and we're nearly 20 kilometres into the stage...

Meantime, here's a photo of the riders waiting for the start. Rac﷽e leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama) second from left, and yesterday's stage winner Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) on the far left.

Eight riders dr🧸opped incl♍uding stage 2 winner Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost)

Stage 3 was won in spectacular style by Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), who dedicated the victory to the late Gino Mäder, who died after a major crash on the race almost two years ago to the day. Full story here:
Tour de Suisse: Long-range attack nets Quinn Simmons solo win on stage 3

Average speed for now is a jawdropping 51.3kmh. J💜ust as well i꧙t's a flat stage.

Another attack goes 👍six riders and it almost immediately implodes. Bunch remains together though at this speed, how long for is anyone's guess🅰.

160 kilometres to go

Bunch still together, but more riders, like G🐟iro d'Italia KoM winner Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana) are dropped.

Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) was one of the last riders to try and counter-attack Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) on s𓄧ta♏ge 3 and he's back on the move again now.

More riders bridging across to Pow⛎less, a recent winner o🅠n Swiss soil in the GP Gippingen.

Powless is nearly nine minutes down on🌳 GC, so he's not a threat overall, so is a good candidate for a long-distance break today.

The peloton has sucked back in the Powless-inspired move and another lone b൲id for glory by 💝Fabio van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has also rapidly collapsed. One hour's racing done and the average speed is 55kmh...

133 kilometres to go

And no break. For the last 16 kilometres the road has𝔉 been beginning to rise, albeit very gently, and even though the summit of the Spl&uu𒁃ml;genpass is 90 kilometres away...

Fortunato is now over two minutes back. He is currently lying tenth over🐻all at 1:37, and was presu🎀mably hoping to shine on the mountain stages, as well as being a GC threat.

Attack by three riders: Andr🦋ew August (Ineos Grenadiers), Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché꧃-Wanty) and Larry Warbasse (Tudor).

110 kilometres to go

And the three have a 22-seco𒉰nd advantage, the biggest of any break so far.

Powless and Simmons are trying to bridge across

Finally eight riders are moving togethe▨r at the head of the race. Names and numbers shortly.

Breakaw🍌ay of eight: Neilson Powless (EF൩-EducationFirst); Andrew August (Ineos Grenadiers); Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Wanty); Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek); Thomas Gloag (Visma-Lease a Bike); Sébastien Grignard (Lotto); Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor); Larry Warbasse (Tudor).

1:15 the gap. Looks like after a mereꦦ 100 minutes/85 kilometres of racing, we finally have the break of t♛he day.

And here's a shot of the first three to test the water: Warbasse, Zimmerma💞n and August

Of the eight, Zimmerman, a former Dauphiné stage winner, is the best placed overall, at 2:18 on race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ); the next most dange🎀rous is Simmons, 6:08 back.

On the plus side for Ineos on stage 4, they've got✨ Andrew August, a debutant in the Tour de Suisse, in the break. On the downside, after DNS Geraint Thomas 🅷they've now just lost a second rider today, Laurens De Plus, who's abandoned.

Simmons is 💝the most recent stage winner of the Tour de Suisse, but he's not the only one in the break (and not the only American, either) with a stage victory. Larry Warbasse, also a former US National RR Championꩲ, took one of the biggest wins of his career, if not the biggest, in Suisse back in 2017.

And here's the report CN had about Warbasse that day back in 2017...

Tour de Suisse: Warbasse wins on first summit finish in Villars-sur-Ollon

80 kilometres to go

2:45 the gap.

We're fast approaching the foot of the first climb of the day, the Sufers, and the speed of the race is a brainsearing average of 51.2kmh. The climbs will bring down that average notably, of course, but we're still 25 minutes ahead of the fastest time schedule of theﷺ day.

71 kilometres to go

Break is splitting apart. Ma☂yrhofer, Gloag, Powle🔴ss and Simmons move ahead

Grignard𒁏 is dr🎃opped from the four chasers behind the breakaway, leaving Warbasse (whose teammate Mayrhofer is ahead), Zimmerman and August as their closest pursuers.

Here's a 🥂shot of the break before it fell apart...

On the Cat.3 Sufers climb (3.4km at 5.7%), Simmons, Gloag, Powless, Zimmerman and August regr✃oup at the head of the race.

Zimmerman dropped again, 1:20 t🌌he gap. Chances are we'll have the bunch at the head of the race before we tackle the second (and hardest climb of the day), the fast-approaching Splügenpass.

Gap is down to 1:10 now. Small prize to anybody who can remember the last time, if indeeꩵd there is one, that we had three US riders in a break of four on the front in the Tour de Suisse...

Warbasse a🎀nd Mayrhofer, the Tudor duo formerly in the break, are now both caught by a bunch of roughly 60 riders.

News of a fourth abandon/DNS today: veteran Canadian climber and Tour de France/Vuelta a Españꩵa stage winner Mike Woods (Israel-Premier Tech). Meanwhile another former Tour de France/Tour de Suisse stage winner, Basque veteran Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), has been dropped from the bunch.

57 kilometres to go

And the gap for th🉐e four leaders shrinks to under a minute

Gloag reached the top of the Cat.3 Sufers ahead of Powless ✨and August, by the way, although none of them are in the mountains classification battle

Just 30 seconds now for the break, and August is struꦚggling to hold on.

The bunch itself is splitting apart on the lౠower slopes of the Splügenpa🗹ss under pressure by UAE.

Still to come on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse:

Km 146: Climb: Splügenpass - Cat.1, 8.8km at 7.3%

Km 185: Sprint: Chiavenna

Km 193: Finish: Borgonuovo di Piuro

UAE's pace is devastatin✱g the bunch and bringing the break back. With 54 kilometres to go, only Powless remains a few metres ahead.

Race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-F🦂DJ) reportedly at the back of the tiny string of leaders as Powless is caught.

Grégoire is dropped...

Just 17 riders in the leading group now, amongst them second placed Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&BHotels). Gregoire is reported✱ly trying contact but UAE are piling on the pressure.

We're about half way up the C𝄹at.1 Splüge𒅌npass, with five kilometres to the summit. After that, almost all downhill to the finish.

Attack by Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek) with 51 kilometres 🥃to go

López brought back as the race goes through a feed zone on the climb. UAE re♉turn to the front of the lead group.

Jan Chri🍷sten (UAE) is doing the hard work for Almeida, with Powless♎ now dropped out of the back of the lead group of 14.

His pace is not fast enough for Almeida, though, who moves𝓰 back to the front of the group and 𒀰who's blowing the group apart.

Only Felix Gall, Vauqelin, Onley and O'Connor can follow Almeida. The y♛ellow jersey will 🌱be on somebody else's shoulders tonight...

Now it's Vauqulin who's struggling and ไO'Connor is giving way as well...

Two kilometres from the top and Alme✅ida is going clear alone...

Almeida has a significant disadvantage overall, he's 3:17 back, but now is his opportunity to regain time and go for theꩵ stage win...

48 kilometres to go

Almeida has seven seconds🦋 on the 𝓰rest of the field, a kilometre to go to the top of the Splügenpass.

Grégoire is already a minute back and with so many GC f💜avourites ahead, it'll be hard for the race leader to get back into ཧcontention.

A chasing group of Vauqel𒊎in, Felix Gall, Ben O'Connor and Onley has foꦏrmed behind Almeida.

Almeida has 45 ꦇseconds in his favour on the chasers at the top of the Splügenpass

More riders joining the Gall/Vauqelin/O'Con𒈔nor group as they try to keep Almeida in check and crown the top🧔 of the Splügenpass.

At the moment Vauquelin in the ♒best position to move into the overall lead༒, as he's 25 seconds down on GC, but there's a very long descent now, for Grégoire to regroup and try and recover time.

Grégoire is currently tackling the downhill with compatriot and former double World Champi🌟on Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) for company.

Meanwhile on a descent off the Splügen🐻pass with very varying gradients, ranging from near flat across a rℱeservoir to much steeper stretches, Almeida is stretching open his gap to 55 seconds on a group of eight chasers.

Here's a shot of Powless, last man standi꧙ng from the break of the day of eight, being 🐼sucked in by the UAE-led mini-peloton on the Splügenpass.

Speeds of 70kmh and rising on the descent of the Splügenpass, accordin🀅g to a race motorbike.

Almeida led over the Splügenpass for maximum points💟 in the KoM rankings, ahead of ꦰO'Connor and Onley.

In the chase group behind Almeida are Pablo Castillo (Movistar); Ben O'C⛦onnor (Jayco-AlUla); Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL), Clément Champoussin (XDS-Astana), Matthew Riccitell🌸o (Israel-Premier Tech) and Ilan van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep). Gap is currently 1:00.

Worth remembering that A𒀰lmeida was the key pre-race favourite, with two stage victory and❀ a second place overall in Suisse behind teammate Adam Yates as well as wins in Romandie and Itzulia-Basque Country to his name.

Almeida was far from the first Portuguese rider on the podium of Suiss😼e, though. Back in the day it was won three times in a row by former World Champion Rui Costa, from 2012 to 2014. Albeit a long way out o🅰f the GC battle, he's also taking part in this year's race, for EF Education-EasyPost.

27 kilometres to go

On a flatter segment, midway down ဣthe interminable descent of the Splügenpass , Rui Costa is leading by 50 secꩵonds.

Almeida in full flight o꧟n the descent of the Splügenpass

The ꦏgap between Vauquélin and Gregoire at the top of GC is 25 seconds and the gap on the road is bouncing between 18 and 30 seconds, so the overall lead is currently hanging in the balance.

Vauquélin and O'Connor have reportedly gone clear from the chase group of eight, according to the race organisation website, but no TV images yet of thꦉe chasing duo on the interminable switchbacks on the descent.

17 kilometres to go

As he nears the 🌄foot of the clꦏimb, Almeida's advantage is shrinking slightly, to 40 seconds.

Finally some TV images coming through of O'Connor and Vauquelin on the descent, with a gap of a couple of hundred metres advantage on a lone chaser, Grégoire, who has regained a lot🦩 of terrain on the descent.

Gregoire swept up by a group of chasers, and in turn th🤡ey are regaining ground on O'Connor and Vauquélin. Almeida, mean▨while, still has 38 seconds advantage on this group.

10 kilometres to go

Almeida ꦬreaches the flat segment at the bottom of the climb with a 38 second advantage. Whether he can stay away now will at least partly depend on how much the group of 10 chasers opts to collaborate.

The chase group now has 11 riders, as Matthew Riccitello (I🍰srael-Premier Tech) regains contact. The key names, though, are Grégoire and Vauqellin, 1 and 2 overall and likely to stay that way after the stage.

Almei🦄da's advantage cut to 33 seconds. It's going to be touch and go...

Worth remembering the finish isn't c♍ompletely flat. There are 2.6 kilometres at 2🐟.8%.

However, collaboration is, well, patchy behind and Almeida 🃏could be heading towards the third stage win of his career.

Yet another attack by Onley a🅘nd O'Connor swiftly on his back wheel again.

Almeida is now o🥂n a series of false flats and little🌳 ramps, grimacing slightly, but barring disaster the stage win is his.

3.5 kilometres to go

45 seconds for Almeida

O'Connor and Onley press on, meanwhile, they may not get the stage win but bonus seconds are on offer😼, not to mention a slight time gain on Gregoire and the🔥 other GC rivals.

Meanwhile Vauquelin and Gregoire continue to shadow☂ each other with some digs from the chase group. None of them working out, though.

This will be Almeida's sixth win of the 2025 season and 🤡all of them are in the WorldTour. Im🍃pressive.

40 seconds for Almeida on O'Connor/Onley as he heads into the last kilometre. As a redemption for his setbacks on ꦯstage 1, this is a big one.

Almeida is into the barriers now, sprinting for the line. ಌThe GC isn't forgotten either...

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) wins stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse from Heiden to Borgonuovo di Piuro

Second for Onley 39 seconds down, O'൩Connor dropped a little in the finale, 50 seconds back, but s꧅till taking third.

Almeida blows kisses at tꦫhe cameras as he heads back towards the finish line. Vauquelin and Grégoire cross the line about a minute down on the Portuguese stage winner, meaning the Groupama-FDJ racer will remain in the lead for a fourth straight day.

The day's winner...

Here's the top 10 for the stage courtesy of

And some words from the stage winner, who when asked how much he'd suffered, answers drily "Too much for sure. It was a hard effort, good teamwork and it's nice to finish it off."
Regarding the GC, "there's still a way to go, a lot of time to get back, but I'm happy with the stage win and I'm going to enjoy this one."
When it's suggested that he's now the favourite, but Almeida says simply "I disagree because I still have two minutes to take back and🦄 it's going to be a superhard test. But we never give up." Will he try tomorrow on the race's toughest stage? "Well, if you don't try, you never know." Hard to disagree with that.

A shot of overall leader Romain Grégoire crossing the line. He's got a tough task ahead of him keepꦰing Almeida under control, but today at least, the yellow jersey r💫emains on his shoulders.

And here's the Cyclingnews full report on an action-packed stage...
Tour de Suisse: João Almeida goes solo on the Splügenpass for stage 4 victory

Overall that's been quite a change on GC. Before there were ten riders at 1:37 or less, now there are only six and the gap between race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and that tenth place is up to 3:25. Closest rival Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B) remains at 25 seconds, and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) is still on the virtual podium at 29 seconds, but Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) at 56 seconds and, above all, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at 2:07 have really♚ closed in.

In the secondary classifications there has been one important changes. Second on stage 3 behind lone breakaway Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) and then the solo winner himself on stage 4, Almeida may not have ousted Grégoire from the yellow jersey, but he does now le♏ad ahead of the Frenchman in the points classification. Grégoire remains on top of the BYR ranking, though, and Felix Engelhardt (ꦯJayco-AlUla) is still the leader in the mountains. Israel-Premier Tech moves into top spot in the teams ranking.

And what about tomorrow?

With four Cat.1 climbs, stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse from La Punt Chamues to Santa Maria in Calanca is undoubtedly the most difficult of the entire race. 183.8 kilometres long, andun off entirely in Switzerland after the finish in Italy the previous day, the first half contains two major Cat.1 Alpine passes, the Julierpass and the Passo de San Bernadino. Both peak out at well over 2,000 metres above sealevel. Stage 4 then drops down into the valleys for a double ascent of the Cat.1 Castaneda (4.5km at 9.8%). On the second time round is fol♌lowed by a continuation of the same climb, after the KoM banner and at roughly for another two kilometres at 9%, up to the finish line.

That jus🧔t about wraps it up for today for the live coverage of the Tour de Suisse. There will be more reports, analysis and new🅰s coming in through on the CN website, and we'll be back with more live coverage on Thursday.