Matthew Riccitello climbs the general classification after the fifth stage of Tour of Switzerland 2024. After yesterday’s good performance, not far from the best, the rider of Israel – Premier Tech showed off an even better leg during the 10.2 kilometers that took the runners to the top of the finish line in Carì, proving to be one of the strongest runners behind the UAE Team Emirates duo who dominated the stage by finishing on the two highest steps top of the podium respectively with Adam Yates and with Joao Almeida. Only a slight moment of difficulty in the last meters prevented the American climber from conquering the podium of the day, being overtaken by Egan Bernal (Ineos – Grenadiers) right in the final sprint.
With this result, the 22-year-old gains four positions in the general classification, placing himself in fifth place, 1’53” behind the leader Adam Yates. These are the words of the native of Tucson to our microphones immediately after arrival: “I felt good all day. Steep climbs like today’s are more suitable for me than less steep and faster ones like yesterday’s. Furthermore, I think that the fact that the stage was hard from the beginning also helped me because perhaps I can do better when there is so much fatigue in everyone’s legs. I’m so happy with how today went, I don’t know if I could have done anything differently, I went as hard as I could all the way to the top. I’m a little disappointed that Bernal overtook me just before the finish line, but it was a good race and in any case I’m happy with the result.”
Today’s result, however, is not a surprise for the Arizona runner, the only one of the high-ranking men to even try something, who is perfectly aware of his means and concentrated on aiming for the best possible result: “Coming here I knew I had good legs – continues the runner of the Israeli team – In all the races I do I am ambitious and aim to achieve a good result. I’m not surprised at how I did, I’m just happy that everything went well. In the next stages there are still some climbs to face, I just hope to continue to go as well as I have done up to now and I think something good will come of it.”
