The 2025 Tour de Suisse continued Thursday with stage 6 – a 186.7-kilometer ride from Chur to Neuhausen am Rheinfall. The stage would feature two Category Two climbs early in the stage but would otherwise feature many downhill kilometers that would take the riders in the Tour de Suisse peloton down from the mountains. Many expected the stage to culminate in a mass sprint finish between the long-starved sprinters - or a win from a long breakaway as riders fought to gain attention from team management before the final selection of this year’s team rosters for the Tour de France.

The start list for this year’s Tour de Suisse included Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), and Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphilippe. Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) had been forced to abandon the race due to a crash in an earlier stage, which had caused injury to his left knee and sadly jeopardized his Tour de France participation in his final season.

A four-man breakaway group formed early in stage 6. The quartet featured Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), and Mauro Schmid of Team Jayco-Alula. The courageous riders had fought their way to a lead of more than three minutes, but they lost valuable time on the Wildhaus climb, which was a Category 2 climb, with a length of nine kilometers and an average gradient of 6.8 percent.

Mauro Schmid was the first rider to reach the summit of Wildhaus. He was followed by Harry Sweeny, Stefan Küng, and Romain Gregoire. The front quartet continued its voyage along the route of stage 6. 

The breakaway quartet approached the Hemberg climb (Category 2, 6.2 km, 5.7 percent) with a time advantage of 02:20 minutes over the chasing peloton, which was spearheaded by riders from Arkea B & B Hotels. The Hemberg was the final categorized climb of the stage.

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) launched a breakaway effort from the main peloton on the climb in a joint effort with teammate Matej Mohoric and Ewen Costiou from Arkea B & B Hotels. The trio formed a chase group.

Mauro Schmid was also the first rider to reach the summit of Hemsberg. Sweeny and Gregoire were the next riders to cross the summit line.

With one hundred kilometers left of the stage, the front quartet had a lead of 02:15 minutes over the main peloton, while the Bilbao-Mohoric-Costiou chase trio was 01:20 minutes behind the front men.

Mohoric, Bilbao and Costiou got reeled in by the main peloton and the sole remaining front group had an advantage of 01:30 minutes over the peloton when sixty kilometers remained of the stage. The speed was fast and the sprinter teams in the peloton were working hard in the flat to hilly terrain, which would continue all the way to the finish line in Neuhausen am Rheinfall.

Romain Gregoire was dropped from the breakaway group and got reeled in by the chasing main peloton, which was spearheaded by riders from Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lotto, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. The three remaining breakaway optimists had an advantage of 01:20 minutes with 35 kilometers remaining.

The breakaway trio participants fought hard to keep the chasing peloton at bay. The front men had a lead of almost a minute as they passed by the Hüttwil lake with 24 kilometers remaining. Harry Sweeny was showing great initiative in the stage and contributing significantly to maintaining the lead.

The main peloton was getting desperate and strong troops had been sent to the front to ensure the front trio would be caught before the finish line, so the stage would culminate in a mass sprint finish.

The advantage of the front group had been reduced to less than thirty seconds when fifteen kilometers of the stage remained.

The riders in the front trio, however, continued to show great persistence, no matter what riders contributed to the chase work in the main peloton. The advantage was still twenty seconds with twelve kilometers left. The sprinter teams were now using their sprinter leadout train riders to reel in the breakaway and their team resources would be depleted in a mass sprint finish.

The riders rode along the River Rhein and the front trio had almost been reeled in with five kilometers to the finish line. The lead had been reduced to sixteen seconds, and the peloton could spot the front trio further up the road.

The front trio got reeled in just one kilometer before the finish of the stage and the sprinter teams in the peloton started setting up their sprinters for a mass sprint finish across the finish line in Neuhausen am Rheinfall.

Vincenzo Albanese launched a solo attack for EF Education-EasyPost but got caught. Danny van Poppel launched Jordi Meeus in a sprint and the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sprint ace proved the fastest man in the mass sprint.

Jordi Meeus has won stage six of Tour de Suisse ahead of Davide Ballerini and Lewis Askey (Gropama-FDJ). Madis Mihkels took fourth, while Nicolo Buratti finished fifth.

Kevin Vauquelin remains general classification leader following stage 6, 29 seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe, while Joao Almeida is in third place. Oscar Onley is fourth and Lennard Kamna fifth in the GC.

Saturday’s stage 7 of Tour de Suisse 2025 will be a 207.3-kilometer race from Neuhausen am Rheinfall to Emmetten. The stage will be contested in hilly terrain and will include two category 2 climbs before concluding on a Category 3 climb to Emmetten.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de Suisse.