Tour de Suisse: Viviani takes second consecutive victory

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Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) claimed his second straight win at the Tour de Suisse on stage 5. The Italian held off Peter Sagan (Bora hansgrohe) after the two riders showed that they were head and shoulders clear of the rest of the field after a perfect lead-out from Viviani's teammates.

Deceuninck-QuickStep positioned the Italian national champion at the front as they race approached the final corner and Sagan had no response when Viviani kicked for the line. The pair even managed to create a gap over the rest of the field after Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) struggled to hold Sagan's wheel.

Trentin was eventually overhauled before the line by Trek Segafredo's Jasper Stuyven, who took third. Trentin finished fourth, with Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.

Peter Sagan was the first rider to congratulate Viviani at the line but the three-time world champion at least had the consolation of retaining his overall lead in the race, even if for one more day.

Sagan has extended his lead to 14 seconds over Matthews but the GC is set to change dramatically on stage 6 with the race heading towards the major climbs.

For the second day in a row the sprinters teams dominated the stage, however they were forced to work for their spoils when a committed group containing Bert-Jan Lindemann (Jumbo-Visma), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) and Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie) broke clear.

Although the escape never established a sizeable lead over the peloton they ensured that the main field had to keep the pressure on for most of the day's 177km stage between Münchenstein and Einsiedeln.

Mohoric was the last-man standing from the break inside the final 30km of racing as he held a lead of just over a minute, but despite a brave and now trademark style descent from the Bahrain Merida rider he was unable to hold off the pursuing bunch and was caught with roughly 15km to go.

From there the sprinters' teams and the GC squads jostled for position. Team Ineos were particularly keen to sit on the front after losing Geraint Thomas to a crash on stage 4 and they kept their leader Egan Bernal out of trouble as the tricky finale approached. Bora-hansgrohe were present and accounted for but it was Deceuninck-QuickStep who bossed the final with Kasper Asgreen, Yves Lampaert, Michael Mørkøv, and eventually, Maximiliano Richeze leading Viviani into position.

Even with the threat of Sagan on his wheel Viviani showed none of the hesitation he displayed at the Giro with a thoroughly convincing sprint for the line.

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