Tour de Suisse: Lutsenko beats Bakelants from two-up sprint in Bern

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Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) used his brute strength and superior form to win stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse in Bern as the overall contenders preferred to let a breakaway dominate the stage before the decisive and final 38km time trial on Sunday.

The former under-23 world road race champion was part of the 19-rider break of the day and then forced the attack clear on the final climb, some 20km from the finish. Lutsenko was joined by Jan Bakelants (Ag2r-La Mondiale) but felt so superior; he opted to generously do most of the work and dragged the attack to the finish. He then used his speed to sprint to victory, as Bakelants sat up and accepted defeat. Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) was also in the break. He finished third at 17 seconds on the stage and so moved up to 10th in the overall classification.

FDJ and Team Sky controlled the peloton for much of the stage, protecting the general classification positions of race leader Thibaut Pinot and second overall Geraint Thomas. The Welshman got away on the last descent and pulled back a further three seconds after taking 10 seconds during the last two flat stages. However, Pinot remains the race leader, with Thomas second overall at 34 seconds back before Sunday’s decisive 38km time trial that covers the same circuit used for Saturday’s road race stage.

Lutsenko won the world under-23 road race title in Valkenburg in 2012 and produced a similar performance to take the best win of his professional career. Despite only being 22, Lutsenko is set to be part of Vincenzo Nibali’s Tour de France team and has already ridden the 2013 Tour and the 2014 Vuelta a España. He won the time trial stage at the Tour of Denmark in 2014.

“This is definitely the most important road win of my career so far,” Lutsenko said via an interpreter after winning the stage. “It’s incredible that the attack went away 20km from the finish. I wasn’t afraid of Bakelants because I knew I could take him in the sprint. I worked hard because I wanted to ensure we had enough time to stay away from the chasers for when we got to the last hill.”

How it happened

With Sunday’s decisive time trial already on the minds of the overall contenders, the tough circuit stage around the countryside south of Bern was always going to be perfect for a breakaway and after a fast first hour and few attacks, a split of 19 riders eventually got away in pursuit of individual glory.

The move included world champion Michal Kwiatkowski and his Etixx-QuickStep teammate and fast finisher Matteo Trentin. Also in the move were Cameron Meyer and skilled stage winner Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), along with an assortment of other journeymen including Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo) and former Tour of Flanders winner Stijn Devolder (Trek Factory Racing).

The break worked smoothly as they covered the first three of the four 38km laps. The peloton was happy to let them have their day in the spotlight and only concerned themselves with keeping Barguil under control. As a consequence FDJ and Team Sky shared the chase, with Cannondale-Garmin also doing a share after they failed to get a rider in the move. However, the break was never to be seen again, with FDJ and Sky happy to let the gap hover at two minutes. As a consequence most of the sprinters eased up on the final climb, including Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep), who will leave the 2015 Tour de Suisse without a stage victory.

The race for the stage victory in Bern began on the final of the four laps, with Kwiatkowski having several tries to split the breakaway before switching to a stopper role to chase down other surges off the front. The 19 riders played games with each on the rolling roads with several riders hiding on the wheels in the hope of a sprint finish as others wasted their chances with futile attacks.

However Lutsenko, who had ridden aggressively on several stages, blasted clear with conviction with 20km to go. It seemed to early but Bakelants decided to go with him and eventually got across the small gap in time for a ride to the finish. While Lutsenko powered on, doing 90 per cent of the work, the chasers behind ran out of legs and determination. Even some hard work by Cameron Meyer for Albasini could not bring down the gap to change the outcome of the race.

Bakelants is a smart rider but could only hang onto Lutsenko’s wheel as the Kazakhstani rider powered to the finish. He tried to leadout the sprint but Lutsenko was far stronger and had no problem winning the sprint.

Although not seen by race television, Thomas, Dumoulin, Sagan and a few others managed to get away on the fast descent back to Bern. However, Pinot’s FDJ team led the chase and limited Pinot’s losses to just three seconds. He has given up a total of 13 seconds to Thomas in the last three stages but will try to fight to limit his losses to less than 34 seconds in the 38km time trial.

Every second will count in deciding if Pinot or Thomas pulls on the final overall winner’s yellow jersey in Bern on Sunday.

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