Modolo wins messy Tour de Suisse stage 5 sprint

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Sacha Molodo (Lampre-Merida) took an impressive victory ahead of Peter Sagan (Cannondale) on stage five of the Tour de Suisse.

Sagan lead out the sprint, but Modolo had the speed going into the final corner. The Italian went around the outside of the Cannondale rider to take the sprint by a convincing margin. John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) made it through to take third place ahead of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha).

"When the finish is on a slight rise like that, I know it suits me really well," Modolo said.

"I knew that I had to be first through the last corner and that I had to beat Sagan. I was on his wheel and then moved past him. He tried to force me wide as is to be expected but I felt good and got past him."

It’s Modolo’s seventh victory of the season, including two wins at the Mallorca Challenge, and the biggest of his career.

"This is an important win in my career. I haven't raced for two months due to an injury so it's great to win now and go the Tour de France knowing that I can beat certain riders."

Yesterday’s stage winner Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) crashed in the twisty finish. The Manxman was taken down by a tumbling Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) who, in-turn, had come to blows with Danny Van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing). Van Poppel overcooked it on the final corner and connected with Goss as he tried to squeeze between the Australian and the barriers.

Race leader Tony Martin was caught up behind the crash but didn’t lose any time and remained in the yellow jersey.

How it happened

After finishing in Ossingen on stage four, the riders would start there today. Four categorised climbs separated the riders from the finish in Büren an der Aare. However, it was expected to be a sprint finish at the end of the day.

The big news of the morning was the departure of Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky). The Brit was already ill going into yesterday’s stage before he crashed on the finishing circuit. He was able to limp home almost 12 minutes down, but decided not to carry on in order to rest for the British National Championships next week.

Three men escaped very early on and after 30 kilometres they already had more than three minutes on the bunch. The three men were Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Jaroslaw Marycz (CCC Polsat) and Sander Armée (Lotto Belisol). Veuchelen was the best placed of the escapees but at 22 minutes down, Omega Pharma-QuickStep were not too worried. Their lead would peak at 4:55, just before the halfway point of the stage.

After the big crashes of the opening two road stages, it was a fairly straightforward day for the peloton. Omega Pharma-QuickStep did much of the work on the front hoping to keep Martin in the yellow jersey and deliver Cavendish to a second victory.

Katusha came up to assist in the closing kilometres and helped make the catch with 10 kilometres remaining. Kristoff was boxed in during yesterday’s sprint and they didn’t want to make the same mistake again. The pace from the Russian team had the peloton strung-out along the road.

With so many riders looking for victory in this stage, the jostling for position was intense. No one team looked like they could take full control of the peloton. It was Giant-Shimano who led the group into the final kilometre, but they lost the battle for the front. Sagan bounced his way out of being boxed in and jumped first, but Modolo timed his jump perfectly to take a convincing victory.

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