Miguel Angel Lopez won the general classification at the Tour de Suisse ©Twitter/TDS

Miguel Angel Lopez became the first Colombian rider to win the Tour de Suisse after preserving his overall lead on the ninth and final stage of the race in Davos, which was won by his compatriot Jarlinson Pantano.

The peloton had been expecting to tackle a 117 kilometre mountain stage to bring the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour race to a close, but the route was shortened to just 57km by organisers after heavy snow.

It was a rare use of the UCI’s extreme weather protocols, which were introduced in February, with a stage of the Paris-Nice having been halted earlier this year, while the queen stage of the Tirreno Adriatico was cancelled entirely.

When racing finally commenced a three-man group of Argentina’s Max Richeze, Belgium’s Jasper Stuyven and Denmark’s Magnus Cort Nielsen launched an early attack, but were hauled back with nearly 25km remaining.

Lopez kept a watchful eye of his nearest rivals, having headed into the day with just an eight second advantage over the United States’ Andrew Talansky, while Spain’s Jon Izaguirre was 16 seconds behind after his stage win yesterday.

The Colombian rider jumped across to a potentially dangerous move which contained Pantano, the United States’ Tejay van Garderen, 2013 world champion Rui Costa of Portugal and Slovenia’s Simon Spilak, the 2015 Tour de Suisse winner.

Costa and Spilak quickly slipped out of the leading group, while Lopez made a solo move to ahead of a descent to give himself a cushion over his rivals.

Jarlinson Pantano won the final stage of the Tour de Suisse in Davos
Jarlinson Pantano won the final stage of the Tour de Suisse in Davos ©Twitter/TDS

While the Colombian was caught inside the final eight kilometres of the stage by Pantano, van Garderen, Izaguirre and Russia’s Sergei Chernetskiy, his efforts would prove enough to seal the overall crown.

Pantano eventually led the group over the line in a time of 1hr, 23min and 55sec to earn the stage win, with Chernetskiy and Izaguirre completing the top three on the same time as the winner.

The general classification was sealed by Lopez, who ended the stage race 12 seconds ahead of Izaguirre, who moved up to second in the standings.

France’s Warren Barguil, who lost the lead after yesterday’s individual time trial, completed the top three after finishing 18 seconds down on Lopez.

The race is considered a key build-up race for the Tour de France, which is due to begin on July 2.