Egan Bernal wins epic stage atop Suisse's legenday San Gottaro and strengthens his lead
Egan Bernal consolidated his lead at the Tour de Suisse claiming victory on the mountainous Queen stage 7
The Team Ineos Colombian finished 23 seconds ahead at the end of the longest Queen stage of the Swiss race, a 216.6km ride from Unterterzen to San Gottardo.
Bernal finished ahead of two Bahrain-Merida riders, the Italian Domenico Pozzovivo and the Australian Rohan Dennis who is second in the overall classification.
With just over two weeks to go before the start of the Tour de France, Bernal is now a favourite for the race, with team mate Chris Froome out after a serious crash and Dutchman Tom Dumoulin of Sunweb also unable to start.
The breakaway was caught with just five kilometres to go on the top of the legendary cobbled Gotthard Pass.
Bernal attacked on the beyond category clib with just 3kms to go and headed for victory.
With just two stages left, Bernal is 41 seconds ahead of RohanDennis and Austrian Patrick Konrad (Bora) in third and the 1m 13s behind.
The penultimate stage on Saturday is a 19.2 km time trial around Goms, before the race ends with a short 101.5 km but tough final mountain stage, with three beyond category climbs.
"My teammates did an exceptional job today , it's fantastic," said Bernal. "Tomorrow, I will certainly lose time on the clock but there will be a mountain stage on Sunday, we will control that as much as we can. We'll give it our best," said Bernal.
VIDEO: 2019 Tour de Suisse Stage 7 Highlights
2019 Tour de Suisse Stage 7 Top 10
1 Egan Arley Bernal Gomes (Col) Team Ineos 5:37:40
2 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:23
3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida
4 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:34
5 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team
6 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
7 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:40
8 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:50
9 Lennard Kamna (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:01:03
10 Fabio Aru (Ita) Team UAE Emirates
2019 Tour de Suisse GC after Stage 7
1 Egan Arley Bernal Gomes (Col) Team Ineos 24:17:48
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:41
3 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:13
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:17
5 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team 0:01:19
6 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
7 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:02:07
8 Fabio Aru (Ita) Team UAE Emirates 0:02:20
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sunweb 0:02:23
10 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:26