Hitting the accelerator 150 metres from the line and surging past Ben Swift (Sky Procycling), Peter Sagan rocketed to his second stage win of this year’s Tour de Suisse. The Liquigas-Cannondale rider tightened his grip on the blue points jersey when he sprinted home first into Schaffhausen, decisively beating Matt Goss (HTC Highroad), Swift, Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and world champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo). All were part of large front group which also included race leader Damiano Cunego.
Goss’ team-mate Mark Cavendish missed a split which occurred on the third category Hallauerberg climb, 22 kilometres from the finish, and lost out on the chance to fight for the stage win. More significantly, Bauke Mollema also got caught in the second half of the peloton, being stranded by a puncture at a crucial moment, fifteen kilometres from the finish. This plunged his Rabobank team into a panic, and led to criticisms from them afterwards. They were angry with the Leopard-Trek team of defending champion Frank Schleck, as the squad drove the pace once it became clear he was in difficulty.
Mollema had started the day second overall, one minute 23 seconds behind Cunego, and chased flat out to try to get back to the other GC contenders. However the task proved too difficult and he finished in the second group, 48 seconds behind the 28-man leading bunch.
He dropped to fifth overall as a result, with team-mate Steven Kruijswijk moving up into second place, one minute 26 seconds behind Cunego.
Frank Schleck is now third overall, and has to overcome a one minute 41 second deficit in tomorrow’s concluding time trial. US rider Levi Leipheimer moves up to fourth, one minute 59 seconds off yellow, while a disappointed Mollema is two minutes eleven seconds back and has surely lost any chance of taking this Tour de Suisse.
Cunego doesn’t have a history of strong time trials, but his directeur sportif Valerio Tebaldi appears relatively confident. “"The team did its best in order to allow Cunego to face the final time trial in the best position. “Tomorrow will be an intense day, but Damiano has the calm of someone who knows that has always done very good performances.”
In increasing his buffer over the next rider in GC, the Italian has reason to celebrate. So too Sagan, who provided a further sign that he is one of the best young riders in cycling.
“I’m really happy with this win, mainly because I’m capitalising on all the opportunities presented by the race,” he explained. “Today’s stage was a tricky one to judge due to the profile in the finale. I was expecting an attack that would split the group, and that’s what happened. Many of the riders, including some of the sprinters, lost contact. We managed to maintain a really strong pace at the front and a sprint finish was the most likely outcome.
“My opponents decided to go early and after Daniel Oss led me out I just knew I had to follow them. I knew there was room and time to counterattack so I launched my sprint to the left and got past them. This is a positive period in which I’m managing to produce top performances. The goal now is not to settle for what I’ve done and carry on like this.”
Early break precedes later showdown:
The 167.3 kilometre rolling stage was marked by a four man break which was clear for most of the day. Jaroslaw Marycz (Saxo Bank Sungard, Luca Paolini (Katusha) and Jan Barta (Team NetApp) scarpered inside the first three kilometres and were joined almost immediately by Francisco Ventoso (Movistar). They pulled well together and opened a maximum lead of over seven minutes.
Marycz took the intermediate sprint at Beringen, beating Paolini; the positions were reversed at the next one, the gallop at Hallau.
Soon after passing the finish line for the first time, Barta unfortunately crashed out of the move, hitting the deck approximately 39 kilometres from the finish. He chased back on but both he and Ventoso were shelled 30 kilometres from home. Marycz and Paolini continued onwards and held a solid advantage onto the third category climb of the Hallauerberg, pushing hard to try to hold off a peloton which was suddenly much more active than before.
Seeking to try to engineer a stage win for Jose Joaquin Rojas, Team Movistar ramped up the pace on the climb and split the bunch. This also had the effect of eating into the lead of the two up front. They still held 45 seconds with 17 kilometres to go, but with the Garmin-Cervélo team riding to try to set things up for Thor Hushovd, and then Leopard-Trek taking over to ensure Mollema couldn’t return after his puncture, the duo were eventually reeled in by the first chase group with 11 kilometres remaining.
Mollema had set off in pursuit with Pieter Weening, then continued alone when his team-mate faded. However he realised it was an impossible task and was picked up by the group behind. The HTC Highroad and Omega Pharma Lotto teams were chasing hard behind but, with riders such as Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara driving the pace ahead, it became increasingly obvious that it was too late.
Wout Poels attacked for the Vacansoleil-DCM team, getting clear 2.2 kilometres from the line. The Quick Step team was having none of it, though, and dragged him back just before the kite. That ensured a big group sprint to the line, and despite Swift’s attempt to notch up another win this season, Sagan was far too strong.
He clocked up win number two of the week while Cunego moved a step closer to taking his biggest stage race victory in many years. Tomorrow’s time trial is 32.1 kilometres in length; he’s likely to lose time to the specialists, but should have enough in hand to take the final victory.