Sagan sprints to win stage 2 of Tour de Suisse

World Champion, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), proved to be the fastest rider in the peloton, when he won the bunch sprint on stage 2 of Tour de Suisse. Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal) is the new overall leader of the race.

Sunday’s stage was another rainy one for the Tour de Suisse peloton. However, it didn’t discourage the riders from attacking right from the start. After numerous attempts to get away, four riders finally got a gap and formed the breakaway of the day. The four riders were Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling), Sébastien Minard (AG2R La Mondiale), Matthias Krizek (Team Roth) and Antwan Tolhoek (Roompot - Oranje Peloton).

The quartet quickly built up a solid gap on the first of the four undulating laps of 47 km around Baar. In the peloton, Trek - Segafredo kept a steady pace for the leading rider Fabian Cancellara. After 52 km of racing, the breakaway reached the first KOM sprint. Here, Krizek turned out to be the strongest as he won the sprint in front of Tolhoek. On the next time up the climb, the roles were reversed as Tolhoek beat Krizek on the line. At this halfway point of the stage, the gap from the break down to the peloton was just under four minutes.

This being his farewell season, Cancellara didn’t want to give the breakaway any chances of succeeding and thereby losing his yellow jersey. His teammates were constantly at the front of the peloton, making sure the gap slowly came down. As the riders started on the final 50 km of the stage, the breakaway only had 1:30 minutes advantage on the pack.

On the last time up the 5.4 km long category 2 climb, Krizek and Tolhoek went head-to-head once again. Krizek opened the sprint and managed to keep his Dutch rival behind him, which meant the Austrian rider was awarded the blue KOM jersey on the podium at the end of the day. The peloton crossed the top of the climb less than one minute behind the breakaway.

With 35 km left to go, the pack reeled in the four riders from the morning break. Soon after, one of the top favorites for the stage win, Fernando Gaviria (Etixx - Quick-Step), crashed and had to put in a big effort to rejoin the peloton where Lotto Soudal now tried to set up Roelandts for the intermediate sprint. Being only one second down on Cancellara in the general classification, the Belgian hoped to win the intermediate sprint and get the three bonus seconds, which would give him the yellow jersey. However, Cancellara was determined to keep his overall lead and in the sprint, the Swiss home favorite actually managed to beat Roelandts.

As the riders approached the final kilometers, it became clear that it would all come down to a bunch sprint. Orica GreenEdge hit the front of the peloton to set up their prime pick for the win, Michael Matthews. Magnus Cort did a great job leading out his Australian teammate, but on the final 200 meters, Sagan managed to get a jump on his rivals and take the win. Maximiliano Richeze (Etixx - Quick-Step) was second, while Matthews had to settle for third place. Roelandts finished 5^th on the stage and, due to a small break in the peloton, Cancellara ended up losing the yellow jersey to the fast Lotto Soudal rider after all. Roelandts now leads Tour de Suisse one second ahead of Cancellara before Monday’s stage.

Top 10, stage 2 Tour de Suisse

1. Peter SAGAN, TINKOFF, in 4:35:19
2. Maximiliano Ariel RICHEZE, ETIXX – QUICK STEP, at :00
3. Michael MATTHEWS, ORICA – GreenEDGE, at :00
4. Magnus Cort NIELSEN, ORICA – GreenEDGE, at :00
5. Jurgen ROELANDTS, LOTTO SOUDAL, at :00
6. Jasper STUYVEN, TREK – SEGAFREDO, at :00
7. Danny VAN POPPEL, TEAM SKY, at :03
8. Reinardt JANSE VAN RENSBURG, DIMENSION DATA, at :03
9. Sven erik BYSTRØM, TEAM KATUSHA, at :03
10. Tom VAN ASBROECK, TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO, at :03

Top 10, overall after Stage 2 Tour de Suisse

1. Jurgen ROELANDTS, LOTTO SOUDAL, in 4:42:56
2. Fabian CANCELLARA, TREK – SEGAFREDO, at :01
3. Luke DURBRIDGE, ORICA – GreenEDGE, at :06
4. Peter SAGAN, TINKOFF, at :10
5. Martin ELMIGER, IAM CYCLING, at :10
6. Jon IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, MOVISTAR TEAM, at :10
7. Tim WELLENS, LOTTO SOUDAL, at :11
8. Johan LE BON, FDJ, at :13
9. Silvan DILLIER, BMC RACING TEAM, at :13
10. Gorka IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, MOVISTAR TEAM, at :14