Breschel wins from nine-man break

Danish rider Matti Breschel (Team Saxo Bank) proved his prowess in an elite selection during Tuesday's stage of the Tour de Suisse, taking the win from eight breakaway companions in Stäfa. He outsprinted Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) and Tadej Valjavec (AG2R La Mondiale) for the victory.

"I barely managed to pull myself over the last climb," Breschel said. "I was unsure whether I could take the stage when I closed a gap at 400 meters to go with a huge series of cramps as a result. At 200 meters from the line Iglinsky, my biggest competition, fortunately opened the sprint and eventually I could squeeze myself by him."

It was the third victory this year for the 24-year-old, having previously won stages in the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour of Luxembourg.

Overnight race leader Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) finished in the peloton 1:04 behind the winning break and relinquished his yellow jersey to Valjavec. The Astana rider now leads the Tour de Suisse by two seconds over Cancellara's teammate Andy Schleck.

Schleck had won the two intermediate sprints late in the stage to gather time bonuses, which made him the "virtual" race leader. However, the time bonus Valjavec earned with his third place stage finish enabled him to take the lead by two seconds. The pair had been separated by three seconds going into the stage, with Valjavec 28th at 0:49 and Schleck 34th at 0:52.

Team Saxo Bank directeur sportif Kim Anderson was not sorry to see the yellow jersey leave the team - at least for the time being. "It is okay to pass on the jersey now so we are not bound to be working the next few days since both Matti and Andy have been away throughout the day.

"Now Andy is well-positioned in the GC where I expect that he will meet particularly severe resistance from Valjavec when we are moving uphill again," he said.

A 26-rider escape group dominated the early part of the day: Ivan Santaromita (Liquigas), Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas), Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo TestTeam), Andrey Amador Bipkazacova (Caisse d'Epargne), Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), Tony Martin (Team Columbia-Highroad), Sergey Klimov (Team Katusha), Matti Breschel and Andy Schleck (Team Saxo Bank), Maxim Iglinsky and Dmitriy Muravyev (Astana), Françis De Greef, Greg Van Avermaet and Johan Van Summeren (Silence-Lotto), Markel Irizar (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-NGC), Huub Duyn (Garmin-Slipstream), Alexander Efimkin and Tadej Valjavec (AG2R La Mondiale), Jérémy Roy (Française des Jeux), Maryan Hary (Cofidis), Johannes Fröhlinger, Thomas Rohregger and Peter Velits (Team Milram), Robert Kiserlovski (Fuji-Servetto) and
Silvère Ackermann (Vorarlberg-Corratec).

Martin threatened to take Cancellara's race leadership since he started the day only 34 seconds down on general classification.

The young German lost ground however, and was unable to join the nine who remained in front for the final 30 kilometres: Zaugg, Breschel, Schleck, Iglinsky, Efimkin, Valjavec, Rohregger, Velits and Kiserlovski. They had 2:50 over Cancellara's group, which was close to catching the rest of the 26 riders.

Valjavec positioned himself to take the lead from the big Swiss rider, having started the day 49 seconds behind. His group had 1:40 with five kilometres remaining.

Valjavec attacked solo with six kilometres remaining but the Team Saxo Bank duo pulled him back to give Schleck, 52 seconds behind Cancellara, a chance for the overall lead.

Rohregger made his bid for victory by attacking at the 2 km mark, but he was caught with about 150 metres to go. Iglinsky sprinted for the finish line, but was caught and passed by the Dane in the closing metres. The Kazakh was disappointed with his second place. "I had to win this stage. I was convinced I could win it because the other fast rider in the
group, Breschel, had to work the whole day for Schleck. This was my chance and then in the final metres Breschel came back. I don't think I will sleep well. I wanted to win. It is one year ago that I won."

The group stayed together and Valjavec took the overall lead. Cancellara finished in the chase group over one minute behind his teammate and stage winner, Breschel.