Team News: Peter Sagan Wins his second stage

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Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) won his second stage in two days in the Tour de Suisse and now leads the race

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Team News: Peter Sagan Wins his second stage

Unstoppable Sagan takes second stage win and leader’s jersey at the Tour de Suisse

Tinkoff Cycling Team Press Release

After spending two days in Baar for the opening time trial and the first road stage, the Tour de Suisse made its way north over the 192.6km third stage to Rheinfelden. After two days of rain, the peloton spent a third day in the wet, with showers making the roads wet and soaking the riders. While the temperatures weren’t low, a third day of rain would undoubtedly be taking its toll on a peloton that was hoping for better weather.

While the day’s categorised climbs were to be found in the latter half of the stage, with the third category Sonnenberg and Schöneberg ridden twice in the finishing circuit after two challenging climbs at the 105km and 122km mark, the preceding 100km was by no means flat. The opening section saw an up and down route before a slight downhill before the first categorised climb, the second category Hauenstein, with its 690m summit. The climbs weren’t the big mountains the country is famed for, but they were big enough to make racing over them tiring, their cumulative impact being felt in the legs. Getting over the climbs was one thing, being able to contest the flat finish was another.

Today’s break was made up of eight riders, who managed to brave the difficult conditions and extend their advantage over the peloton to three minutes with an ease that belied the wet weather. The pace was fast but the peloton seemed happy to let the break stay in front for the time being, but as expected, as the town of Rheinfelden appeared on the horizon, the gap became smaller and smaller.

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In spite of the group of eight’s best efforts, the pace was just too high for them, and as the peloton came nearer, the break began to disintegrate having struggled to sustain the gap during the day. This didn’t stop the remaining riders from trying to salvage something for their efforts, and pushed on, trying hard to stop the chasers from catching them. With 20km remaining, an attack came from the bunch, first bridging to the remaining breakaway riders, before pushing on ahead to join the break leader, who was pushing ahead up the road.

In the peloton, Peter Sagan was disappointed by the peloton’s reluctance to join Tinkoff in the chase. “It was tough when we were working so hard. Cycling has changed – it doesn’t respect the group as much. We were out on front, working with Lotto, but all the riders weren’t working. I was asking where the respect was. We were going to kill ourselves riding so hard with 50km to go”.

“I thought it would be easier for everyone if we worked, but I’m angry that my team was working hard on the front, but no-one seemed to respect that.”

 

 

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Having taken the stage win in commanding fashion on stage 2, the flat finish meant Tinkoff’s leader, Peter Sagan, had another chance to push for a stage win. With his teammates upping the pace and helping the peloton to reduce the gap, the UCI World Champion’s team soon had the break in their sights. Only two riders remained ahead, the prospect of a stage win urging them on.

On the final climb of the day and with 11.5km to go, Peter attacked, powering over the climb, making his break for freedom look effortless, to go it alone ahead of the chasing peloton and join the remaining two breakaway riders on the front. From there, Peter attacked again from 5km out, taking a slim advantage at the front, but with the chase group splintering, there was every chance Peter’s group of three would be able to hold them off until the end.

With the fifteen second gap falling, with any other riders in the break, it would be unlikely that they would be able to stay out until the finish, but Peter had other plans, working with the other two (Albasini and Dillier) to drag out the advantage until the flamme rouge passed overhead.

With the speed increasing, Peter’s companions in the breakaway began their sprint, looking to distance him as they rounded the last corner, but the Tinkoff leader hadn’t even begun his sprint – and when he did it was immediately clear who was going to take the stage. Crossing the line, Peter took his thirteenth Tour de Suisse win and propelled himself into the race leader’s jersey.

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Looking back on the day’s efforts, while Peter made it look easy, he was clear that it was a hard-fought race. “The race was very hard. I caught the escape on the descent  and it was pretty hard to keep up. When its raining, it’s much easier to be alone out the front – to make the break stick – and the decisions I made were based on me feeling good.”

“On the front, the guys did some work with me and it was ok in the lead up to the finish. It was a good sprint – at 300m out, I stayed on his wheel and then passed him on the line. The riders in the breakaway wanted to work with me today – it’s not always easy to get them to work with me but we all wanted the win. It was just lucky I still had the legs to go for the sprint in the last hundred metres.”

Today, the race comes to its flattest stage – the calm before the storm of the mountain stages. While a flat profile awaits, it’s not without its challenges, particularly when considering the team has to defend Peter’s leader’s jersey. The 193km stage will take riders from today’s finish in Rheinfelden to the Champagne region. A short climb early in the day is the toughest riders will have to face before a flat 130km approach to the last hill of the day – a third category climb riders will negotiate less than 10km before the finish.

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