UAE Team Emirates rider Juan Ayuso pays tribute to Gino Mader after Tour de Suisse

UAE Team Emirates rider Juan Ayuso paid tribute to Gino Mader after winning Sunday's final Tour de Suisse stage and finishing second in the general classification.

The Spaniard admitted to having mixed feelings following his victory in the time-trial and finishing the event nine seconds behind overall race winner Mattias Skjelmose.

Organisers had decided to finish the race despite the death on Friday of Mader, who failed to recover from the injuries he sustained after a horrific crash the previous day.

The 26-year-old's Bahrain Victorious team announced on Saturday that they had withdrawn from the race along with the Tudor Pro Cycling and Intermarche teams.

Organisers had consulted both the teams and the rider's family before deciding to finish the race.

Skjelmose of Trek-Segafredo embarked on the final day's individual time-trial kitted out in the leader's yellow jersey and, although he was beaten on the day by 20-year-old Ayuso, did enough to take the overall title.

“[My feelings are] a bit mixed. Of course, not because I won the stage, it's the second TT win this year so I'm happy that I keep improving in this type of racing style,” said Ayuso.