Haussler wins the sprint in Sierre

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Heinrich Haussler of the Cervelo TestTeam won stage two at the Tour de Suisse on Sunday with a perfectly-timed late sprint in Sierre.

A nasty five kilometre climb just 15 kilometres from the finish cracked most of the big-name sprinters, including Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen and Alessandro Petacchi and hey were all dropped from the front group. Haussler survived and picked the perfect line through a hectic sprint with a late acceleration.

Spain's Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was second and Italy's Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) was third. Both thought they were going to win but Haussler came off their wheel and moved across the road before accelerating clear. Oscar Freire (Rabobank) was fourth and Gerald Ciolek (Milram) was fifth but both were unable find the way to the front to fight for victory.

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) finished safely in the peloton in 12th place, and so kept the race leader's yellow jersey. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) is still one second behind and Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) is third at three seconds.

Haussler has had a difficult spring. A knee problem stopped him riding the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and then the problem returned in a crash at the Tour of California. He was also caught drink driving in late May. However the likeable Aussie-born German was smiling again in Sierre after his win.

“This season’s been a disaster up to now,” Haussler told the Reuters news agency.

“I had a knee injury early in the season which wrecked my Classics, then another crash in the Tour of California and I had to drop out there. Winning today was something I needed badly for my morale and motivation.”

Late climbs cracks the sprinters

The stage was held in cloudy and showery conditions but the racing began early as the race dipped into Italy.

Belgium's Joost Van Leijen (Vacansoleil) was the first to attack and he was joined by Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Matthias Russ (Milram) and Pavel Brutt (Katusha). They quickly opened a gap of seven minutes as they headed to the Simplonpass but first HTC-Columbia and then Saxo Bank worked to keep them under control.

Hernandez was first to the summit of the Simplonpass ahead of Russ. Van Leijen was dropped on the long, long climb but got back on during the even longer descent. The gap was 5:06 at the summit but fell to just 3:40 on the descent as HTC-Columbia chased again. It was unclear if they were working for Mark Cavendish or trying to set up Tony Martin to snatch the race leadership from Cancellara.

The late Valençon climb proved too tough for Cavendish and many of his fellow sprinters. The climb snaked up the side of the mountain valley and split the bunch. 66 riders emerged at the front and would go on to fight for the stage win.

Cavendish showed he is climbing much better than earlier in the season and even better than many of his rival sprinters. The Briton was 96th, three minutes behind, along with Robbie McEwen (Katusha), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and surprisingly teammate Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia), who had been a potential overall contender. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) finished six minutes down, Tom Boonen (Quick Step) was at nine minutes and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) was at ten minutes.

At the head of the race, the late climb cracked Van Leijen as Frank won the climber's points and secured the lead in the competition. However the break only had 45 seconds after the descent and first Saxo Bank and then other teams began to close the gap as they could see a chance of victory.

Brutt had almost crashed on the descent but found the energy for one last attack as the bunch closed down on the three leaders inside the final five kilometres. However he was caught too and the 66 riders began to prepare for the sprint.

The finish in Sierre was narrow and positioning was vital. Marcato and Urtasun hit the front early but it was too early. Haussler saw a gap on his right and moved across the road to hit the front with 100 metres to go. He timed the switch perfectly and then had the power to edge in front. As he hit the line, he sat up and began celebrating a surprise victory, while Marcato banged his handlebars in frustration.

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