Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost) powered to victory in a tricky uphill sprint on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse, timing his charge for the line perfectly in Schwarzsee ahead of Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ).
The finale was kicked off 2.5km from the line by Swiss rider Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) trying to go solo on home roads. As he ran out of steam, US national champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) tried to steal a march entering the final kilometre.
Simmons was marked by Askey as Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) failed to respond, with Albanese in the Brit's wheel, and entering the final 200 metres, no one could match the Italians power, with Christen boxed in.
This is by far Albanese's career-best win, coming at 28, three years after his last at the Tour du Limousin.
Vincenzo Albanese of EF Education-EasyPost (R) celebrates at finish line as stage winner ahead of Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling) and Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Finishing 21st in the main bunch, Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) held onto the overall lead of the race, thanks to his stage 1 win, and extended his advantage to Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) by sprinting to one bonus second at the first Tissot sprint.
"It's my first victory in WorldTour, and at this fantastic race in Switzerland, and I'm very, very happy. I say thank you to all my team, it was a fantastic job in the kilometre," said a delighted Albanese, who confirmed he was meant to be a lead-out man on stage 2.
"I felt good from the start, and my role today was to lead-out [Madis] Mihkels, but in the last kilometre, [Quinn] Simmons and some others attacked and I followed. Then I saw 200m to the finish and I went full until the line."
How it unfolded
A general view of the peloton departing for 177km stage 2 from Aarau to Schwarzsee (Image credit: Getty Images)
After the chaotic racing and rain of the opener, Stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse opened up in Aarau to sunny skies and a mood of remembrance, with it marking two years since the devastating passing of Gino Mäder at his home race.
Heading southwest, the 149 remaining riders kicked into action from the flag drop, with attacks being launched and a three-man move eventually getting up the road in the opening phase of the 177km route to Schwarzsee.
Two Swiss riders, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) found themselves in the break, alongside Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), and they were allowed to build a lead of more than two minutes.
The Tour de Suisse stage 2 attackers: Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Despite a far from flat parcours being on offer, with uphill roads punctuating the final 65km of the stage, two of the teams with sprinters, Picnic PostNL and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, came to the fore to control.
They kept the gap tight, down at 1:30 for the majority of the day, working for Pavel Bittner and Jordi Meeus respectively.
Dillier was dropped on the first categorised climb to Guggisberg with 55km remaining on the day, and his two fellow escapees saw their advantage drop below 40 seconds, as Tudor began pacing on the steep climb to Heitenried, with Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphilippe working. This pace also dropped Meeus.
The Tissot bonus sprints brought some aggressive action, with Gregoire nabbing one bonus second at the first, and Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) getting the same prize at the second, with the breakaway duo still in front.
Schmid proved stronger than Rutsch and left him with 17km to go onthe final categorised climb to Rechthalten, with Lidl-Trek, Picnic and Jayco now helping to decrease the break's gap to less than 15 seconds. He too was caught 2km later, after Fabio Van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck) tried to attack.
With a sprint now looking imminent, EF Education-EasyPost took over on the front of the peloton as the tricky uphill finale began to unfold.
Jan Christen of UAE Team Emirates - XRG attacks (Image credit: Getty Images)
Jan Christen burst the finale into life 2.5km from the line, attacking solo with bandages on his elbow and knee after a tough fall yesterday.
As he faded, Quinn Simmons tried an final kilometre attack, which Alaphilippe failed to follow, forcing Askey to waste energy closing the gap.
Albanese then took the quickest line to the finish inside the final 200 metres, legally boxing Fabio Christen out of contention, with neither Askey or Simmons able to mount any more challenge in third and fourth.
Romain Grégoire started and ended Monday's stage in the leader's yellow jersey (Image credit: Getty Images)
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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