The 7th stage of Tour de Suisse offered the riders 4 KOM summits, including the hors categorie climb of Albulapass at 10km to go.

Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida), with redemption aims after the two crashes that cancelled his ambition of a top result in the overall classification, demonstrated competitive fighting spirit on the Albulapass.

At 6 km to the summit of the climb, Stortoni escaped from the main bunch and Scarponi followed him: the duo struggled against the chase of the top riders until 2km from the summit and then they were forced to surrender.

"Dombrowski (Sky) had a 30 seconds lead on the group when I attacked with Stortoni n a stretch of slight slope,” Scarponi explained. Stortoni set a perfect pace which allowed me to close in on the American [Dombrowski]. I came within 10 seconds and I had 30 seconds on the group of favourites but I wasn’t able to maintain the pace and then the best climbers came from behind. I thought I had a good chance of winning today and I wanted to leave my mark after a few days of bad luck.”
 

Scarponi’s teammate Ulissi, who crashed yesterday, quit the race at the feed zone as he continued to suffer from a pain in his leg. He'll return to Italy in order to undergo medical checks.