At the end of a hard-fought sixth stage, the jury was forced to decide the winner in Disentis – Sedrun. The jury relegated Portugese rider Rui Costa (UAE) and declared youngster Andreas Lorentz Kron (Lotto-Soudal) to be the stage winner.

In the final hectometres of the sprint Costa swerved from the outer right towards the barriers on the left while trying to hold off Kron. The jury regarded the move to be irregular sprinting which resulted in the Danish rider being awarded the win.

“It wasn’t fair sprinting from his side and I feel the jury made the right decision. When it comes down to sprinting, all riders should follow the rules. Rui Costa will likely state that he was the strongest rider and I will say the same about myself”, Kron said firmly.

“Full gas” was how Kron described how the 130 km long stage had been ridden, starting in Andermatt and passing the Gotthard and Lukmanier passes. The race situation kept turning around and even Spain’s David De La Cruz (UAE) bonus of a minute on the Lumanier wasn’t enough for the stage win.

“At that point of the race my legs were hurting massively”, Kron said when glancing back on the stage. Then again, he was more than motivated to fight for every metre. Kron was the dedicated leader of the Lotto-Soudal team for the general classification in this Tour de Suisse. That was until he struggled with the heat during Thursday’s stage to Leukerbad and lost ten minutes. “I owed my team-mates to bounce back with a stage win.”

When asked who would win this Tour de Suisse, 23 year-old Kron limped on two thoughts: “As a Dane, I’m rooting for Jakob Fuglsang but I think Richard Carapaz is stronger.”

The Ecuadorian race leader had a quiet day in the office despite the ‘crazy’ racing in front. At one moment even world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) was up the road in a breakaway but Carapaz was unimpressed. “The finish was still too far away at that point of the race.” Also the time-trial on Saturday isn’t going to cause much damage. “The long climb up to the mountain pass should suit me well.” – www.tourdesuisse.ch

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