Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) rode to victory and into the yellow jersey on stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse, catching lone leader Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) at the top of the Albulapass and then dropping him on the wet descent to the line.
The Italian was third overall at the start of the day with a 25-second deficit to Damiano Caruso, so there was a tense wait after the BMC rider crossed the line in a fragmented GC group 15 seconds back, with Pozzovivo's 10 bonus seconds putting them dead level on time. In the end the organisers put Pozzovivo atop the standings.
Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) was second on the stage, four seconds behind Pozzovivo, with Ion Izaguirre taking third alongside him in a three-man group that also included Pozzovivo's teammate Mathias Frank.
Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) were next across the line, followed shortly by a desperate Caruso, who had responded time and again to the attacks on the final climb.
Also in that fragmented GC group were Mikel Nieve (Team Sky), Marc Soler (Movistar), and Pello Bilbao (Astana). The latter moved into the top 10 overall at the expense of Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky), who attacked on the final climb before falling away.
A crestfallen Woods crossed the line in 10th place. He made the breakaway that went clear after 40 or so kilometres on the San Bernadino climb, one of two big climbs on the 166.7km stage from Locarno to La Punt-Chamues.
The former runner attacked early on the Albulapass, a 15km hors-categorie ascent, and it looked like he was on his way to his first victory as a fully-fledged professional, until the GC riders started attacking each other. It was Pozzovivo's dig, less than four kilometres from the summit, that did for him, and the Italian joined him over the top for the 9.7km run to the line – made up of a plateau and a descent.
As the rain began to lash down, Pozzovivo's experience, perhaps, made the difference as Woods struggled with the lines on the descent. Caruso and the GC group were advancing, but the 34-year-old did enough to hold them off and take his first victory since 2015.
"This is a very important victory, a WorldTour race, and the first big race for me after the Giro, so it's a big satisfaction for the whole squad. I was waiting for a victory like this because I was very strong in the Tour of the Alps, and then had a good Giro," said Pozzovivo.
"The Giro was very hard but I came out of it with a good condition. Today was a very hard day with lots of climbing, but I'm really happy I was able to win."

How it unfolded

As was the case on Wednesday, there was a big fight to get into the breakaway, and the peloton remained as one all the way to the San Bernadino climb.
Once on it, Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal) succeeded in pulling a group clear, joined by Woods, Philip Deignan (Team Sky), Jan Bakelants (Ag2r La Mondiale), Carlos Verona (Orica-Scott), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Ondrej Cink (Bahrain-Merida), Simone Petilli (UAE Team Emirates), and Bart De Clerq (Lotto Soudal). Matvey Mamykin (Katusha-Alpecin) was late to the party but bridged across to make it 10.
Bakelants led them over the top as they opened up a lead of two minutes on the long climb, and stretched it out to three minutes on the even longer descent to the foot of the Albulapass.
Petilli was the first to attack on the early slopes and was quickly followed by Woods and Bakelants, though Woods was soon on his own as the other breakaway members fell back.
In the peloton behind, Larry Warbasse (Aqua Blue Sport) and Tao Geoghegan Hart attacked, with the Sky rider forging on alone before being caught by CCC's Jan Hirt. The Czech rider then attacked and linked up with his compatriot Cink, with Geoghegan Hart paying for his effort and being passed by the GC group.
It was the yellow jersey Caruso who kicked off the hostilities between the real GC contenders, favouring attack as the best form of defence. Soler was alive to it and the two traded blows, causing the group to thin considerably. Nieve was a constant attacking force along with Izaguirre, while Kruijswijk, second overall at the start of the day, largely maintained a watching brief, while Caruso covered many of the attacks.
The GC group was down to around eight by that point, with Spilak and Bilbao hanging precariously off the back. With just over four kilometres to the top, Kruijswijk put in his attack and only Caruso, Izaguirre and Pozzovivo could follow, though Pozzovivo soon kicked again and rapidly carved out an advantage.
By the top of the climb he was up with Woods, while Caruso, Costa, Kruijswijk, Izaguirre, Bilbao, Frank, Soler, and Spilak slotted into a chase group 40 seconds back.
They made up 20 seconds or so on the plateau and closed in on Woods as the road dropped down, but Pozzovivo judged his lines well and took a decent margin into the final few hundred metres, riding all the way to the line to take the race lead by the narrowest of margins.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-suisse-2017/stage-6/results/