Quintana carves out impressive solo win in Tour de Suisse queen stage

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Nairo Quintana wins stage 7 tour de suisse 2018

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) took an impressive victory in the queen stage of the 2018 Tour de Suisse, attacking at the bottom of the 27km finishing climb to Arosa.

Quintana crossed the line 22 seconds ahead of Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), with Richie Porte (BMC Racing) finishing third on the same time. Porte remains in yellow with two stages to go, but Quintana’s victory propelled him to second overall.

“I heard over the radio that they were coming back and were pretty close, but I wanted to maintain a strong strong rhythm and it was enough to make it all the way to the line, even if it was with a fairly small margin,” said Quintana. “It’s important to know that I’m in good shape ahead of the big objective that’s ahead. That puts me and my team at ease.”

Quintana’s first victory of the season lifted him from sixth to second in the overall standings, 17 seconds behind Porte. Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) finished fifth and dropped to third overall, 52 seconds behind leader.

On Saturday, the eighth stage is made up of six flattish laps up and down the Ticino valley. The race ends on Sunday with a time trial, Porte’s speciality, over 34 kilometres along many of the same roads.

Tour de Suisse 2018 – stage 7 results (Eschenbach/Atzmännig – Arosa):

1Nairo Quintana (Movistar)

4:01:39

2Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)

+22”

3Richie Porte (BMC)

,,

4Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-hansgrohe)

+38”

5Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb)

,,

6Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors)

,,

7Igor Anton (Dimension Data)

,,

8Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo)

+50”

9Mikel Landa (Movistar)

,,

10Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb)

+59”

 

General classification after stage 7:

1Richie Porte (BMC)

26:06:10

2Nairo Quintana (Movistar)

+17”

3Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb)

+52”

4Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors)

+53”

5Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb)

+01’13”

6Jakob Fuglsang (Astana)

+01’28”

7Mikel Landa (Movistar)

+01’31”

8Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo)

+01’37”

9Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin)

+01’48”

10Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)

+02’26”

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