Tour de Suisse stage 3: Sagan claims stage and jersey
Slovak star takes his 17th Tour de Suisse stage win with a masterful sprint in Murten
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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) produced a masterful uphill sprint to win stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse in Murten, Monday. Highjacking the leadout intended for John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo), the Slovak champion came off the wheel of Jasper Stuyven with 200m to go and blasted up the slight cobbled ascent to take his 17th stage victory in the race.
The three time world champion has won at least one stage at every edition of the Swiss tour since 2011. He has also won 17 stages at the Tour of California.
With the win, Sagan also moved into the race lead, taking the jersey from Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick Step). The latter had participated in trying to setup team mate Elia Viviani for the sprint. The Italian took second in the end, with Degenkolb third.
Sagan now leads by 10 seconds overall from Asgreen, with stage 1 winner Rohan Dennis sitting third at 11 seconds.
Although a slightly technical finish, requiring decisive positioning into the final left hander at 200m to go, it was otherwise a routine sprint day on the Tour de Suisse.
Four riders got away in the opening 10km of the 162.3km leg between Flamatt and Murten in western Switzerland. The move comprised Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin), Bert-Jan Lindeman (Jumbo-Visma), Ryan Anderson (Rally-UHC) and, representing the Swiss national team, Simon Pellaud.
A couple of cat. 3 climbs punctuated the stage but the final 26km took place on a single lap of an almost pan flat finishing circuit. The break stayed clear well onto this loop, with Pellaud the last rider eventually reeled in with 5.7km to go.
Deceuninck did most of the final legwork heading in towards the finish, but when Michael Morkov pulled off from a haul at the front, Viviani drifted a couple of wheels back and Trek-Segafredo lurched into the final corner. No one had positioned themselves as well as Sagan, however, the filling in a sandwich between Stuyven and Degenkolb.
As they exited the bend, Stuyven looked back for his leader, while Sagan jumped up the right and opened an immediate gap. For Viviani and Degenkolb it was already a game of catch-up; an almost futile task against Sagan on a rising, curving, uneven finish.
Results will be available once stage has completed.