Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) looked upbeat on stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse as he moved into second place overall on the queen stage despite not making up any time in the late attack.

Thomas was chased down by Sergio Iguita (Bora-Hansgrohe) and race leader Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) before finishing eighth in an ultra-tough stage that included two all-category mountains.

Thomas is now just one second behind Fuglsang on GC, and after a winter he himself called "difficult" and an inconspicuous first half of the season, Switzerland looks to be the turning point of his year.

The Tour de France is just around the corner, and the 2018 Tour winner must have July on his mind as well, although he did not mention it in his post-stage interview, in a week of off-race difficulties and accidents for the entire Tour de Suisse peloton.

"I think the high altitude and the heat during the week made everyone a little more cautious," Thomas said.

"My [teammate] Dani [Martinez] did an unbelievable job.

After Martinez's effort on the final climb, Tomas tried to close the gap, but as he said, the strong headwind made it more difficult.

"There wasn't much I could do, but I decided to sprint at the end," Thomas said with his typical humor. I decided to sprint at the end," Thomas said with his typical humor.

In any case, he told reporters, "It's good to be back in the mix."

"Sure, everyone has some ups and downs. For me, the winter was really bad. You have to keep stimulating your body."

Martinez had already lost time, and Adam Yates left the race with COVID-19.

Thomas said that Saturday's second mountainous stage has a 12.8-km Malbun, with a harder final climb, but it is hard to predict what will happen. Sunday's final 25km time trial will inevitably be a different story, he said.

"Tomorrow could be a bit of a gap or it could be a split. Either way, it's certainly a big two days."