Tour de Suisse: Gilbert sprints to stage 2 victory

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Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) won the messy bunch sprint at the end of Sunday's second stage of the Tour de Suisse, finishing ahead of Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac) and Anthony Roux (FDJ).

Stefan Küng (BMC) took over the race lead, with Sunweb's Michael Matthews and Tom Dumoulin slotting into second and third on GC, both one second back.

A five-man break group was away much of the day, and as they were caught with around 25 kilometres left, there was a crash in the middle of the field. Yellow jersey Rohan Dennis was one of those involved, losing all chances of holding on to his lead.

"It was very nervous out there, because the peloton let the escapees open up a big gap and then started to chase hard, but the margin still wasn't coming down. So it was no surprise that we had some crashes in the peloton, even I was involved in one five kilometers from the last climb and had to make a big effort to return in the pack, which brought me to the limit", said Gilbert.

"The plan was to work for Matteo, so I followed the moves and helped him move to the front before the finish, but we lost each other because of some riders who pushed us. Fortunately, our team came on top today and I couldn't be happier, because this race is one of the most prestigious in the world and to take a stage here is really great. This victory gives us an even bigger motivation for next week, when we hope to notch other nice results."

How it unfolded

A hot and sunny afternoon greeted the 176 riders at the Tour de Suisse start line as they set off on four laps of a circuit course that began and ended in Cham. Each lap included a trip up the Hobern climb – not a big ascent, but enough to offer mountain points.

A break group formed early and was allowed to get away, with Lasse Norman Hansen (Aqua Blue Sport), Nick Dougall (Dimension Data), Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) and Nick Van der Lijcke (Roompot) the select quintet.

Hansen had his eye on the mountains jersey and easily took the first three climbs for the maximum points. Dougall went for the intermediate sprints and resulting time bonuses.

They built up a gap of up to seven minutes before the field brought it down to a more comfortable four minutes, where it hovered for a while. As they hit the final lap, the peloton got serious about things and starting cutting into the advantage.

Hansen dropped back from the lead group for unexplained reasons and Dunne fell back to pull him back up. That effort proved too much for Dunne, who was then the first to drop out of the head group for good.

A crash with about 30 kilometres to go saw a handful of riders hit the road, with CCC's Jonas Koch abandoning the race after coming down hard.

The gap plummeted in short order over the ensuing kilometres. With 25 kilometres the remaining four leaders were caught. Almost simultaneously there was yet another crash in the middle of the field.

Yellow jersey Rohan Dennis was one of those involved in the pile-up. He picked himself back up quickly, but it was too late to reattach himself to the pack. The Australian could only ride out the stage and enjoy his last moments as the race leader, but BMC did manage to maintain its hold on the jersey via Dennis' teammate Küng.

Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Damiano Caruso (BMC Racing) were the first to attack in the finale out of the now greatly reduced lead group. Bakelants took the final mountain points, and Caruso the final intermediate sprint points.

The trio enjoyed a lead of up to 30 seconds, but Gilbert and then several others bridged the gap. The next to jump clear, almost immediately, was a strong Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing). Once he was caught, three more riders jumped and looked as if they might stay away.

But the whole group came charging up around the final curve. The many attacks and tricky finish had kept the sprinters’ teams from forming up, and even kept the top sprinting names away from the front. Well-positioned for the messy kick on the finishing straight, Gilbert charged ahead with 100 metres to go to take the stage victory.

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