Sagan Skids to a Tour de Suisse Stage Three Win

Liquigas rider Peter Sagan, just off winning five of eight stages in the Tour of California and the Prologue Saturday, did it again in Stage Three of the Tour de Suisse.

The Slovakian powerhouse trailed Orica-GreenEdge sprinter Baden Cooke through the narrow, wet and twisting streets of the final kilometer. Sagan needed all the bike-handling skills he learned as a former mountain-biking champion he nearly crashed in the penultimate corner. Sagan kicked his foot free of the pedal and pushed himself upright while riding at 40 mph, keeping enough momentum to pass Cooke around the final corner and get to the finish line first.

“I can’t really explain what happened or how I didn’t fall off,” said Sagan on the team website. “I went fast into the bend so I wouldn’t lose second position, but I lost my grip because the tarmac was wet. I instinctively took my foot off the pedal to stop myself slipping and then carried on to catch Cooke who was getting away.”

Three riders attacked six kilometers into the 195-km stage: Michael Morkov of Saxo Bank and Guillaume Bonnafond of Ag2R were first, joined soon by Jonas Vangenechten of Lotto-Belisol.

This trio gained about 11 minutes before the peloton decided to give chase. That chase was interrupted at a railroad crossing 53 km from the finish when a train came though, cutting the breakaway and the first fifteen riders off from the rest of the peloton. Race officials made most of the riders wait, but the breakaway gained a minute and a half. This made the catch a little more uncertain, and it made the sprinters’ teams work a lot harder.

For a while, it seemed no one could decide whether to just let the breakaway go or to chase it again. Finally Liquigas and Sky decided to get down to work, and with some help from Garmin and Orica GreenEdge the gap started to tumble.

The indecision was almost the sprinters’ team’s undoing: Vangenechten fell off on the Cat 3 climb 26 km form the end, but Morkov refused to quit, urging Bonnanfond to keep pulling. This pair stayed away until the final 500 meters, long after most breakaways would have surrendered.

With the speed of the chase and the narrow twisting roads, many still wet from the afternoon showers, no team had time to organize a serious leadout. Orica GreenEdge got one man in front of Baden Cooke; for the rest, it was every rider for himself. Some got squeezed aside through the tight turns and never saw the sprint; Garmin’s Tyler Farrar suffered this fate, finishing eighth.

Peter Sagan came from several riders back by sheer effort of will, getting onto Cooke’s wheel with two turns to go. He nearly crashed; not many riders could unclip and kick themselves upright at the speed the peloton was traveling. Maybe none but Sagan could do all that, then clip back in without missing a pedal-stroke and continue pushing.

Sagan couldn’t get by the GreenEdge rider until after the final turn. With 50 meters left, Sagan pushed past, Sky’s Ben Swift in tow. Cooke was cooked: after the climbs and the corners, he had no more energy. Swift was not swift enough; the short straight to the line was too short for him to build up speed. Sagan, who had kept his momentum through the corners with superb bike-handling, carried the day.

Stage Four from Aarberg to Trimbach/Olten, could conceivably end with another sprint, but it isn’t likely many of the true sprinters will take part. Halfway through the 189-km stage the Cat 1 Scheltenpass should slow down the heavier riders, and two climbs in the final 30 kilometers, the Cat 3 Unter Hauenstein and the Cat 2 Salhöhe, should ruin any remaining sprinters’ chances. Possibly a real power rider like Peter Sagan, who is also a fine descender, could catch back up to the head of the peloton by the finish, but would he have enough left to compete?

Given his recent performances, one shouldn’t rule him out.

General Classification After Stage Three
    rider    team    time
1    Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa    Movistar    11:06:57
2    Frank Schleck    RadioShack-Nissan     0:00:08
3    Roman Kreuziger    Astana    0:00:15
4    Thibaut Pinot    FDJ-Big Mat    0:00:19
5    Nicolas Roche    AG2R    0:00:21
6    Thomas Löfkvist    Sky    
7    Alejandro Valverde    Movistar    0:00:23
8    John Gadret    AG2R    0:00:24
9    Mikel Nieve    Euskaltel-Euskadi    0:00:26
10    Thomas Danielson    Garmin-Barracuda    0:00:29
Tour de Suisse Stage Three
    rider    team    time
1    Peter Sagan    Liquigas-Cannondale    4:35:32
2     Baden Cooke    Orica GreenEdge    
3    Ben Swift    Sky Procycling    
4    Jacopo Guarnieri    Astana    0:00:03
5    Allan Davis    Orica GreenEdge    
6    Yauheni Hutarovich    FDJ-Big Mat    
7    Lloyd Mondory    AG2R    
8    Tyler Farrar    Garmin-Barracuda    
9    Daniele Colli    Team Type 1 – Sanofi    
10    Marcus Burghardt    BMC