Tour de Suisse: Sagan wins in Olivone

Peter Sagan racked up his fourth stage victory of the 2015 season, this time coming through victorious on stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse in a furiously contested uphill sprint to Olivone over Katusha's Daniel Moreno and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ).

Sagan was well positioned in the final kilometre, but an attack from Orica-GreenEdge's Esteban Chaves shuffled him backwards. When the Colombian was caught with only 300m to go, Sagan was locked on the wheel of Katusha's Daniel Moreno and dove past him into a series of turns inside the final 250m to win.

"It was a really twisty finish. The corner started to go left and so I went left but then it went right and then all the way to the left. I had to take a few risks to stay up and make it to the finish but I did it," Sagan said.

"I’m really happy to win the stage and also how my teammates rode for me. The team did a great job and Majka helped me a lot on the last two climbs to keep the group together. It’s thanks to the team that I won today. Now we’ll enjoy this win and see what happens tomorrow"

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) held onto the numerous attacks in the finale to keep the race lead, now five seconds ahead of Moreno and Sagan.

"It definitely wasn’t easy today to defend the jersey," Dumoulin said. "Today was a little easier. I had Warren Barguil with me but it wasn’t necessary for him to pull because Tinkoff-Saxo wanted a sprint finish and rode for it. That meant we didn’t have to close gaps and we can save our energy for the days to come.

"For sure it will be harder on the mountain stage to Solden. My shape is good and so if I go at my own tempo I’ll try not to lose too much time. If I only lose one minute or one and a half minutes, then anything is possible in the final time trial."

How it unfolded

The brief but intense 117.3km stage left Quinto at the base of the Gotthardpass, and the riders headed straight up the hors categorie pass, cresting it just 18.8km into the stage. Dumoulin was involved in a minor spill with Katusha's Alexander Kristoff early on, but all of the riders were able to get back up and rejoin the peloton, which had let an early breakaway of three riders escape.

Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling) and Marco Marcato (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) escaped on the cobbled section of the ascent and quickly built up a 90 second lead, while behind them Branislau Samoilau (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) was chasing alone.

At the top of the Gotthard pass, the leading duo had three minutes on the peloton and Samoilau only 50 seconds behind. Denifl claimed the maximum points at the top, and the three riders came together on the snow-lined descent.

By the time they reached the bottom, they had an enormous gap - nearly six minutes - on the peloton, but once Tinkoff-Saxo and Orica-GreenEdge joined Giant-Alpecin in leading the chase, the trio's advantage began to quickly fall.

As they started up the category 2 climb to Leontica, the trio had but two minutes, and when Marcato lost contact on the slopes the trio's time out front was doomed. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) set a brisk pace on the climb and hauled back Marcato, and on the next ascent the remaining two were pulled back in.

Orica's Michael Albasini launched a move on the category 3 climb at Aquila, briefly joining Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale) off the front as they swept past Denifl and Samoilau, but the move failed. The much reduced peloton came into the final 3km together, and though Albasini tried another move it too was unsuccessful. Jérôme Coppel (IAM Cycling) and Steve Morabito (FDJ.fr) both tried to escape, but Majka nailed back each attack.

Chaves was the last man to leave the group's orbit, but this time it was Moreno's teammate Simon Spilak who clawed the move back with only 300m to go, but Sagan was on his wheel and launched his move perfectly, diving into a right hand bend and using the road to fend off any other accelerations.

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