Peter Sagan put on an impressive display of speed and skill to come around Fernando Gaviria to win the second stage of the Tour de Suisse.
The result continues a remarkable run of success at the Tour de Suisse for Sagan, who has now won 16 stages here since debuting in 2011.
“I’m very happy and I have to say thanks to all my teammates because they did a great job and it’s very nice to start like this,” Sagan said.
“We did [the circuit] four times and during the first and second laps I started thinking about what tactics we can do and, in the end, I just decided we were going full gas on the final climb.”
“Not just Gaviria. I wanted to make it harder for all of the sprinters and after that we were just going to see what happens with 1.5 kilometres or so to go we decided to go full gas, stay in the group or continue to pull but it was dangerous – there were lots of attacks in the front but my teammates organised everything and they were in the front group when it came together again.
“In the end, it went very well and I’m very happy to be first. After today and yesterday’s time trial we can be a bit more relaxed and focused on good training and maybe for the next stages.
“I was thinking every lap how to win this stage. It was a small group [in the end] with no real lead-outs for the sprinters, there was no real train to make the sprint. I was only really watching two guys, Matthews and Gaviria. Matthews had two [other] riders in front and Gaviria was behind me. I tried to anticipate his sprint and Fernando started at 350 metres or 400 maybe, which is pretty long and I knew after 2 metres, I knew it was going to be difficult to catch him. I was a little lucky as there was a headwind in the sprint and I could beat him in the end.”
