Felix Gall climbed to a maiden professional win on stage four of the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday to claim a narrow lead in the overall classification.
The 25-year-old Austrian was part of an early breakaway that opened a gap on the Crans Montana climb in the mountainous second part of the 152km stage from Monthey to Leukerbad.
Gall held on to finish 1min2sec ahead of Remco Evenepoel with overnight leader Mattias Skjelmose a second further back.
“I’m still a little bit overwhelmed with the situation, I don’t really know what to think,” Gall said afterwards. “It’s my first professional victory here at the Tour de Suisse and now I also have the leader’s jersey.
“Yesterday I felt super good, I’m in the shape of my life, so we said this morning that if I felt the same as yesterday on the last climb, I have to give it a try.”
Overall, Gall leads Skjelmose by two seconds with Evenepoel at 16sec ahead of Thursday’s daunting, mountainous ‘queen’ stage and downhill finish. Two hilly stages follow before a 25km individual time-trial closes the race on Sunday.
