Tour de Suisse 2016: Stage 2

Today the peloton will face 187.6 km in four laps of a circuit course, with start and end in Baar.

The Tour de Suisse really gets underway today with four laps of a 46.9km circuit course. Each lap includes the category two climb Allenwinden.

It will be interesting to see how this race unfolds. The profile shows us very little flat, so it will probably be something for the climbers or Classics specialists.

172km remaining from 187km

15 km into the stage a four-man break formed, and they now have a 2:55 gap: Marcel Wyss (IAM), Sebastien Minard (AG2R), Mathias Krizek (Roth) and Antwan Toelhoek (Roompot Oranje).

 The weather report was for cool early summer weather with sunshine, but of course it is raining instead.....

160km remaining from 187km

The gap has jumped to 5 minutes now!

Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo) is in the leader’s jersey today, having won the prologue by one second. You can read about it here.

Here the top five going into today’s stage

1 Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Segafredo)

2 JurgenRoelandts (Lotto-Soudal) 0.01

3 Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) 0.02

4 Martin Elmiger (IAM) 0.06

5 Jon Izaguirre (Movistar) 0.06

141km remaining from 187km

 The four leaders have now finished the first lap of the circuit course, and have a lead of 4:30.

Cancellara also leads the Points ranking, with the top five being of course identical to the GC.

Best Swiss rider is – who else? -- Cancellara, followed by Elmiger, Silvan Diller (BMC), Reto Hollenstein (IAM), and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge). There are 16 Swiss riders in the race.

Lotto Soudal leads the team ranking, ahead of LottoNL-Jumbo and IAM.

There were no climbs in the first stage, so no mountain jersey was awarded. There will be one given out later today, though. The lead group just went over the day's climb for the first time, with top points going to Mathias Krizek, followed (in order) by Antwan Tolhoek, Sebastien Minard and Marcel Wyss.

Italian Pasquale Fornara won this race four times in the 1950s. Ferdinand Kübler and Hugo Koblet won it three times, as did Rui Costa, who won from 2012 to 2014.

It is still raining. Fortunately we have not heard of any crashes.

Swiss riders have won the race 23 times.

The cycling world is mourning the loss of Rudi Altig, who passed away from cancer at the age of 79. He famously won the Worlds road title in 1966 on the Nürburgring, and won the Vuelta a Espana in 1962, amongst other victories.

Oh dear, not only is there no chance of the rain stopping, it is actually supposed to get heavier.

The second lap of the course is finished, and that means we are at the halfway point. The leaders have a gap of 4 minutes. Trek-Segafredo is at the head of the peloton behind them.

The 2016 Dauphine is history! Chris Froome (Sky) took the overall win, with Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) taking the final stage in a solo.

There is lots of racing going on today, and we are bringing you the livestream again of the Air Force Classic Crystal Cup later this afternoon. Check it out! 

The chase work seems to be effective, as the gap is now just over the three minute mark.

Over at the Dauphine today, Wanty Groupe Gobert's Enrico GAsparotto and Björn Thurau were pulled due to low cortisol levels. 

At the second crossing of the day's climb, Tohloek took the points ahead of Krizek, Wyss and Menard.

88km remaining from 187km

With 88 km to go, the gap is 2:55.

Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) has had to abandon the race after a crash.

65km remaining from 187km

65 km to go and the gap has dropped down to 1:47 now!

Over in Germany, Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) has won Rund um Köln ahead of Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin).

We now hear that Gesink was taken to hospital. No word on his injuries, but we wish him well.

60km remaining from 187km

60 km to go and a gap of 1:52, Trek still leading the chase.

At the first intermediate sprint of the day, at km 128, the points went to Wyss ahead of Tolhoek and Minard.

50km remaining from 187km

Only 50 km left to go, and the gap is 1:40.

Tolhoek and Krizek are tied for the lead in mountain points, so the next time over will decide the winner.

The four leaders hit the finish line to take on the bell lap. Trek is holding the gap at about 1:30. They don't want it to go back up, nor do they want to catch the group too early.

Hard to tell whether it is still raining or not, but the roads are very wet.

 The 4 leaders are approaching the top of the final climb. The peloton is about a minute back, and there have still been no break attempts from the bunch.

Krizek has taken the final climb, in an out-and-out sprint with Tolhoek. That will give Krizek the mountain jersey for tomorrow.

Trek has worked hard all day, and it is beginning to have its effects. One by one they are pulling off and falling back.

Just under 40 km, and the gap at 45 seconds. Won't be much longer until they are caught. It is raining again, by the way.

only 17 seconds now.

There is still an intermediate sprint, only 12 km before the finish, and it offers bonus seconds. Plus there are bonus seconds at the finish. Since the leaders are separated only by seconds, these bonuses could very well play a role in the results.

A group of six has jumped from the field, with a few more coming up. 

34km remaining from 187km

The four leaders have just been caught, and a CCC rider has launched a counter-attack.

The CCC rider is Branislau Samiolau, and he has a slight lead.

Fernandro Gavaria (Etixx-QuickStep) has crashed. He is back up and going but hs just stopped to get a new bike. The young Colombian could well play a part in a bunch sprint.

Samiolau has been caught. Lotto Soudal is now very aggressive. Their Jurgen Roelandts is only one second down on race leader Fabian Cancellara, so he has good chances to take the lead.

Apparently ther have been a number of crashes in the last few minutes, with such riders as Ten Dam and Talansky caught up. We assume that everyone is ok. It has split up the field, though.

Orica-GreenEdge now showing up near the front of the field. They would like to see Michael Matthews cross the finish line first.

A Katusha rider is at the head of the field, followed by Lotto Soudal.

Let us not forget that Peter Sagan is also here -- a real threat to take a win today.

Cancellara, now without teammates, has attached himself to the rear of the Lotto Soudal train.

Luke Durbridge is in a group with Andrew Talansky, both trying to get back up to the main field.

Their group is nearly one minute back.

That intermediate sprint is coming up in 3 km, and we expect a furious full-out sprint there. 

And Cancellara takes the intermdiate sprint ahead of Roelandts! He gets those precious three seconds.

Now it depends on the finish.....

With 10 km to go, the Talansky/Durbridge group is at 33 seconds.

That small group turned on the turbo and has caught the tail end of the peloton. Up front, Tinkoff has taken over the lead work.

The field is now a compact bunch, with now Sky at the front.

The lead work is changing hands with regularity. Now it is Orica-GreenEdge.

4 km to go, and all sticking together.

The pace is high with less than 3 km to go, with Orica-GreenEdge closely followed by Etixx-QuickStep.

Sagan is also neatly tucked in there near the front.

Last km!

Orica-GreenEdge drove hard for Matthews, splitting the field. But they took Sagan and Gavaria with them. Sagan jumped and there was no catching him. Another Suisse stage win for the World Champion!

After all of Orica-GreenEdge's work, they only finished third. Gaviria came past Matthews to take second.

There was officially a three second gap between th elead group and the field. Roelandts was in that first group, so he may well have taken over the lead.

Also, it was Richeze for Etixx-QuickStep in second place, not Gaviria.

Indeed, Roelandts takes over the race lead. He now leads Cancellara by one second. 

The top ten on the stage: 

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 04:35:19

2 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Etixx - Quick-Step

3 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge

4 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) Orica-GreenEdge

5 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Soudal

6 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo

7 Danny Van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky 00:00:03

8 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data

9 Sven Erik Bystrøm (Nor) Team Katusha

10 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo

Sagan has now won 12 TdS stages, and has won here for six years in a row. Quite a record!

Cancellara still leads in the point ranking and is best Swiss rider -- which probably isn't much consolation.

We are still waiting for the official top ten in GC.

And at last the new general classification after stage 2

1 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Soudal 04:42:56

2 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Trek-Segafredo 00:00:01

3 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 00:00:06

4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 00:00:10

5 Martin Elmiger (Swi) IAM Cycling

6 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team

7 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal 00:00:11

8 Johan Le Bon (Fra) FDJ 00:00:13

9 Silvan Dillier (Swi) BMC Racing Team

10 Gorka Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team 00:00:14

That is it for today. Thanks for reading along and join us again tomorrow!