Tour de Suisse: Sagan wins stage 2

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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) won stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse in Frauenfeld, sprinting to victory ahead of Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step Floors) after a hectic finale. Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) rounded out the podium. 

After a busy final 20km saw no teams really in control and a number of groups attempting to get away, the expected sprint eventually materialised. Though with no sprint trains in evidence at the finish, the last kilometre was a scrappy as those preceding it.

Team Sunweb hit the front in the final 500 metres while Sagan freestyled, jumping from the wheel of Michael Matthews to Greg Van Avermaet's before an out-of-position Gaviria sped past. The Colombian was clearly trying to surprise the rest, going long with 300 metres remaining.

Sagan was wise to it though, hopping wheels once again and taking advantage of the slipstream to slingshot around the Quick-Step man 100 metres from the line. The victory is Sagan's 16th stage win at the race and marks eight years in a row with at least one stage win.

"I'm very happy for this and I have to say thanks to all my teammates," Sagan said after the stage. "They trust me and I was just thinking about the tactic we could do today. In the end, it all happened as I thought and I'm very happy to win this second stage here."

"I don't know [why I'm so strong at this race]. I did lots of hard work for all this, so maybe it's from that," he added. "We'll have to see tomorrow - it's another day. I know they [my legs] are not the best in this moment and I have to grow a little bit for the Tour de France, for sure."

Stefan Küng (BMC) retains his overall lead, three seconds in front of teammates Greg Van Avermaet and Richie Porte ahead of Monday's expected sprint stage from Oberstammheim to Gansingen.

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How it happened

After the opening team time trial, held around the northeastern town of Frauenfeld, stage 2 stayed in the area for a likely sprint stage. The 156km stage, starting and finishing in the town once again, was made up of four laps of a 39km circuit.

Each lap featured a category 3 climb (1.7km at 7.6 per cent) midway through. With the last climb coming 21km from the finish though, it would be a big ask for anyone to hold off the sprinters.

The day's break went away less than 5km into the stage, featuring Perrig Quéméneur (Direct Énergie), Filippo Zaccanti (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Calvin Watson (Aqua Blue Sport). The trio quickly built up a three-minute gap, with Zaccanti leading the group over the first two climbs of the day as Watson took the sprint points.

Heading towards the third hill of the day, with 60km remaining, there was movement in the peloton as Michael Albasini (Mitchelton-Scott) got out on the attack. The Swiss quickly chewed up the 1:50 gap to the breakaway, taking just 6km to bridge the gap and make it a quartet.

As Zaccanti took more points at the third climb, securing the first mountains jersey of the race. Meanwhile, BMC hit the front of the peloton, working to bring the gap to under a minute heading into the final lap. The catch would be made 30km from the line, with race leader Küng taking advantage to snag some bonus seconds at the sprint point.

Bora-Hansgrohe led the way up the final climb, upping the pace so as to discourage any attacks that might threaten Sagan's sprint chances. Those came shortly after, as no team really took charge of proceedings.

The in-form Mark Padun (Bahrain-Merida) enjoyed a brief foray off the front, while a dangerous move including Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Maximiliano Richeze (Quick-Step Floors) and José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar) got away at the 10km mark before BMC dragged them back with 5km to run.

With Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) and John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) on the wrong side of a split after the day's final climb, all was set up for a sprint showdown between Sagan, Gaviria and Matthews, and the fans in Frauenfeld weren't disappointed.

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