Tour de Suisse: Trentin wins in Delémont

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Matteo Trentin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) capitalized off of some fantastic teamwork to claim the stage 6 victory at the Tour de Suisse in Delémont, on Thursday. His team led him into the final few hundred meters in perfect position to sprint for the win, ahead of Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff Saxo) in second and Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) in third.

"Of course I am super happy about this victory," Trentin said. “At four kilometers to go, Tony looked at me and said 'OK, we do the sprint.' It was a question of one second time difference, so we knew the yellow jersey was safe at that point and we went. Tony did an unbelievable job. He split the peloton into two groups in the last kilometers, in the middle of the village. When he does a pull like that it is unbelievable the engine he has. He left me at 200 meters to go.

“The finish was slightly uphill. I accelerated and was able to do a good sprint. I like this kind of sprint. But of course I want to share this victory with the team and Tony who did a selfless, great job.”

Overall race leader Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) led the peloton, with Trentin on his wheel, into the final few hundred meters. The huge effort cut a gap in the main field. His position also ensured that he made it safely to the finish line without losing any time in the overall classification. Martin leads the race into the seventh stage ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale).

Sagan tried to shake things up over the final climb and on the descent toward the finish line but ended the day in fifth place. He currently leads the points classification while Bjorn Thurau (Team Europcar) leads the mountains competition and Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling) leads the Swiss rider competition.

How it happened

The peloton tackled a 184km stage that started in Büren an der Aare and finished in Delémont with a shorter finishing circuit that included two of the day’s last ascents over Col des Rangiers and Le-Rond-Pré.

Six men formed an early lead with Lloyd Mondory (AG2R La Mondiale), Laurent Didier (Trek Factory Racing), Simon Clarke (Orica GreenEdge), Benjamin King (Garmin-Sharp), Jacopo Guarnieri (Astana) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka). The group didn’t survive and the attacking continued until the next breakaway slipped away.

The riders in the second and more successful move included Guarnieri, Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha Team), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Jacobus Venter (MTN-Qhubeka) and Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM Cycling), who dropped out of the group shortly thereafter. The four riders continued on and managed to forge a four and a half minute lead heading into the first climb of the day over the Grand Chaumont, 57.5km into the stage.

Guarnieri was the first to the top of the climb and picked up full mountain points, however, the gap back to the field dropped as they crested the top.

Albasini, who was the best placed in the overall classification at over nine and a half minutes down, picked up the full points atop the second climb on the Col des Pontins, 73km into the race, but the gap continued to fall to three and a half minutes.

World champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) had to deal with a mechanical at the side of the road but got some valuable help from teammates Rafael Valls and Jose Serpa to get back in the field before the final circuit through Delémont. He was sitting in 16th place overall, 37 seconds down, at the start of the stage.

The breakaway headed through the finishing city of Delémont with a lead of two and half minutes. The peloton snaked through the city and Team Sky did much of the work to reduce the gap to the four guys out front, which continued to fall to just under a minute. Several riders crashed heading toward the third climb over Col des Rangiers. The mishap blocked the narrow roads and force other riders to dismount to get around the wreckage.

Albasini was the only breakaway rider to hang on to a small lead on the upper slopes of the climb but he too was caught near the top. Several fast-men showed their top form and made it up the third climb including Sagan and Ben Swift (Team Sky). Omega Pharma-QuickStep duo Tom Boonen and Mark Cavendish did not survive the fast-pace set over the climb and wound up out of contention for the stage sprint.

Giant-Shimano’s Warren Barguil attacked over the top of the ascent but was quickly followed by Team Europcar’s mountains leader Thurau, who only wanted to pick up the full points before sitting up and waiting for the rest of the field. Barguil pushed his limits to build a gap of 20 seconds with roughly 23km to the finish line in Delémont.

The rain started to fall during the final kilometers of the race, and so did Barguil’s gap until he was caught with 19km to go. Team Sky pushed hard with five riders who set the pace at the front of the field with sprinter Swift on their wheel. BMC Racing and IAM Cycling, for Mathias Frank, also had good representation heading the field into the last climb.

Martin, wearing the yellow leader’s jersey, sat tucked in safely near the front of the bunch.

Trentin noted that he almost didn't make it to the finish line with the front group after having some difficulty within the final 35 kilometers. "There was road work on the road and I was a little bit in the rear of the peloton. The road went from double lane to single lane when the first part of the peloton passed that area. I was stuck in the back and had to put my feet down when the pace came to a stop. So, I had to chase the group ahead after that situation. When I reached them again at the bottom of the second to last climb, I was always trying to recover. Then on the final climb I was in front of the group again and I helped Tony. I was always with him on the downhill.”

Some teams were not interested in allowing a bunch sprint to take place and riders like Laurent Didier (Trek factory Racing) jumped at the base for the final climb up Le-Rond-Pré. Didier’s short-lived attempt at a breakaway was countered by IAM Cycling’s lead out over the top of the ascent, 11km to go.

Set up by his teammates, Frank took a risk and jumped clear of the field with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) on his wheel. Sagan jumped across but continued on to build a small gap and crested the climb alone. The field managed to reattach themselves to his wheel on the descent back down to Delémont, however, he continued to set a fast pace on the way down hill. The peloton could barley stay on his wheel as he leaned sharply through each switchback.

Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing) was gutsy enough to latch back onto Sagan’s wheel and the pair held a small gap on the field by the bottom of the descent. Once on the flats and under three kilometers to go, several riders tried to leap across to the dangerous move. Team Sky, with Ben Swift on their wheel, pulled the field together under two kilometers to go.

Martin moved to the front of the race and led the field under the one kilometer to go banner and onto the finishing straightaway. The move put Trentin into a winning sprint position and he led the drag race to the line to win the sixth stage.

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