Schachmann, second overall, loses steam due to a massive crash
BARCELONA, 14 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Slovakian cyclist Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) conquered the Grenchen finish line on Tuesday in the third stage of the Tour de Suisse, starting in Aesch and over 176.9 kilometers, to achieve his first victory of the year, while Stephen Williams (Bahrain- Victorious) is still leading.
Peter Sagan is back. At least, after his knee injury that forced him to leave the Tour de France last year, he has once again won a WorldTour event, in a Tour of Switzerland that started by cutting himself in the first two stages.
This time, the former world champion held on with the best and positioned himself perfectly on the approach to the finish, at the wheel of Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux), to attack the Norwegian from afar and prevail with apparent ease.
Of course, a few more meters and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), finally second between Sagan and Kristoff, would have disputed the victory with the Slovakian, who nevertheless achieved his first victory of the year and the first wearing the colors of TotalEnergies, a team he reached (signed until 2023) from BORA-hansgrohe.
It was a surprise, a drop in level, but for now Sagan shows that he has been reborn in the elite with his 120 professional victory, after spending three months without being able to compete last year. It was worse for his former teammate Maximilian Schachmann, who fell in a pileup 4.4 kilometers from the finish line, outside –nearly– of the protection zone and left 53 seconds.
Schachmann, who was second overall and had achieved a 2-second bonus in the last intermediate sprint of this stage, loses many numbers to fight for the final overall, which is still leading Stephen Williams with 6 seconds over Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal) and 7 on Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) and Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers).
Sagan’s victory was possible thanks to the peloton’s chase of a breakaway that was controlled at all times but in which the Swiss Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) refused to be hunted. Finally, 11 minutes from the finish line, he was swallowed up by the large group.