Sagan Wins Another Tour de Suisse Stage

Peter Sagan made it three for four with yet another stage win in the Tour de Suisse cycling race.

This young Liquigas rider can do it all—he won the Prologue time trial, climbs well enough, descends excellently, and can sprint better than many pure sprinters.

Stage Four was chilly and rainy, with three categorized climbs to further test the riders’ cold stiff bodies. A nine-rider break finally escaped on the first Cat 1 climb, but it contained Omega’s Dario Cataldo, only 1:15 down in the General Classification. Because he was so close to the race leaders, the peloton couldn’t let Cataldo get away, which doomed the breakaway.

Cataldo tried to solo to the finish; Ag2R’s Martin Elmiger and Sky’s Lars Nordhaug passed him, but they couldn’t stay away. The peloton caught the last two attacker 2000 meters from the finish line, setting up the sprint finish, which Sagan won handily.

“At the start I didn’t know quite what to expect from today’s race,” said Sagan on the team website. “The weather and the pace of the race made for a tight stage that was difficult to manage. I tried to save as much energy as possible hoping for a small bunch finish.

“The final sprint wasn’t easy to set up because there wasn’t a proper train. Holding onto to the first positions was crucial, and then I took my chance when Burghardt jumped and accelerated so no one could catch me.

“This is a happy period as everything I try works out alright. I know it won’t always be like this so I’ll capitalize on every opportunity while I can.”

Stage Six, from Aarberg to Trimbach/Olten, looked like a good stage for a breakaway, as the first of three climgs, the Cat 1 Scheltenpass, would slow the sprinters, and the final two climbs, the Cat 3 Unterer Hauenstein and the Cat 2 Salhöhe, would finish the job. Dario Cataldo’s presence in the breakaway forced the peloton to keep the gap small, where otherwise the leaders might have been content to take it easy on the narrow, rain-soaked roads.

A group of ten riders attacked at the start, and other attacks tried and failed, before a grouop of nine riders escaped 77 km into the 189-km stage, on the lower slopes of the Cat 1 Scheltenpass: Martin Kohler (BMC,) Grégory Rast (RadioShack-Nissan,) Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi,) Sébastien Minard (Ag2R,) Sergio Paulinho (Saxo Bank,) Javier Mejias (Team Type 1-Sanofi,) Brian Vandborg (Spidertech,) Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) ,) and Mathew Hayman (Sky.)

This group worked together until the start of the day’s second climb, the Cat 3 Unterer Hauenstein, when Martin Kohler attacked, followed by Mathew Hayman, and Brian Vandborg and Grégory Rast, and later Sergio Paulinho and Javier Mejias. Ths would have been a good time for Catal;do to bow out gracefully and let the others contest the stage, but the Omega rider instead bridged across to the leaders.

Once he caught the leaders, Cataldo went right over top of them, trying to solo to a stage win. With the gap at 15 seconds and shrinking, Sky’s Lars Peter Nordaug attacked the peloton, intent on catching Cataldo. Ag2R’s Martin Elmiger and BMC’s Greg Van Aevermat followed.

Nordhaug caught Cataldo 25 km from the finish and went past him into the lead. Cataldo rode with Van Aevermat and Elmiger a while, then say up, realizing he wasn’t getting anything out of the stage—sadly, long after he had ruined it for the breakaway.

The peloton couldn’t seem to decide whether to chase or not. Movistar’s Allessandro Valverde led the peloton, but wasn’t hurrying, and no other teams sent riders up. Nordhaug had 28 seconds on the bunch when he crested the final Cat 2 climb, 18 km from the end, and 39 seconds seven km from the finish.

Then, finally, Liquigas decided to get serious, and kicked into high gear. The Italian team ran down the three leaders two km out, but at that point only had one rider to lead out Sagan.

It didn’t matter; Sagan didn’t use a leadout, instead sitting fourth or fifth wheel into the final kilometer, waiting for others to make their moves.

BMC’s Marcus Burghardt was first to launch, followed by Movistar’s Juan Joaquin Rojas and Garmin-Barracuda’s Heinrich Haussler. Haussler nearly collided with Katusha’s Oscar Freire, who sat up to watch Sagan show his heels to the lot of them. The Liquigas rider had time to sit up and celebrate before crossing the line.

Can Sagan do it again, and if so, how many more times? Stage Five, 193 km from Trimbach/Olten to Gansingen, has six Cat 3 climbs and an uphill finish, but Sagan has shown he is able to climb.

Stage Six199 km from Wittnau to Bischofszell, has another handful of Cat 3 and Cat Four climbs and a much shorter uphill finish, but there is nothing in the route that would prevent Sagan from winning here, except perhaps tired legs from winning all the other stages.

After that comers the time trial and two serious alpine stages. Sagan’s strength, or rather the bulk that provides it, will work against him here—or perhaps he will offer up some more surprises.

It will be very interesting to watch this young rider’s progress through the upcoming Tour de France, his first essay at a Grand Tour. There he will be facing a concentrated field of the best in the world, not just some of the best at different times, and he will have to ride at the increased pace and greater distance a Grand Tour entails.

Well as he has done in the shorter stage races, one wouldn’t expect too much out of him at the Tour (though he might wear the Best Young Rider jersey until the real climbing starts.)

Cat 3 Unterer Hauenstein