cycling: Tour de Suisse Stage #2: Sagan dominates them all

Cycling: Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) once again proved his class. Tinkoff was chasing a breakaway in the pouring rain, but the World Champion realized his team would not be able to hold the group like this. He attacked himself, caught up with the two leading Swiss riders Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) and Silvan Dillier (BMC) as a soloist and then beat them both in the sprint. Sagan celebrated his 13th victory at the Tour de Suisse and thus also took over the yellow jersey from Jürgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal).

 

Rain battle in northern Switzerland

Today's stage covered 192,6 km and six category 3 and 2 climbs from Grosswangen to Rheinfelden. This sounds more violent than it really was. Although there was a chance that the two climbs on the final lap could provide a selection, all experts basically assumed a mass sprint before the race. In the pouring rain, a group of eight around Paris-Roubaix winner Matthew Hayman (Orica-GreenEdge) and the two Swiss Silvan Dillier (BMC) and Gregory Rast (Trek-Segafredo) pulled away. The group was completed by Branisla Samoilau (CCC), Bruno Pires (Roth), Lars Erik Bystrom (Katusha), Antwan Toloek (Roompot-Oranje Peloton) and Huub Duyn (Roompot-Oranje Peloton). The eight drivers harmonized very well, so that Silvan Dillier practically drove in the leader's jersey most of the time and Antwan Toloek meanwhile concentrated on the mountain classifications. With 35 km to go, the lead was still more than two minutes, so the Tinkoff team had to pick up speed to be able to catch up with the escapees. Amets Txurruka (Orica-GreenEdge) attacked out of the field on the climb, but was caught again a little later. At the same time, the leading group also fell uphill. Only Dillier stayed ahead and got a visit from Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge). So the Australian team tried with all offensive power today to get a positive result, although they actually had a promising driver for the mass sprint in their own ranks in Michael Matthews.

 

The world champion shows his class again

Due to the high speed of the Tinkoff team, the field split up into several small groups. When things went uphill for the last time, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) suddenly attacked himself and caught up with Dillier and Albasini. The two also participated at least partially in the leadership work, so that the group of three ran very well and had good prospects of winning the day. Also because a well-organized pursuit could not be established in the peloton, since some helpers were already left behind and everyone was already driving at the limit. The group of three actually managed to stay ahead of the field and, as expected, Sagan prevailed in the sprint ahead of Albasini and Dillier. This was his 13th day victory at the Tour de Suisse, which allowed him to further extend his record. The Slovakian also took over the yellow jersey from the overall leader. Tomorrow there is another stage on the program that suits the taste of the world champion. Does he complete the hat trick?

 

Tour de Suisse - The daily result of the 2th stage

 

Tour de Suisse – The overall standings after the 2th stage