Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) won a hilly stage two of the Tour de Suisse on Sunday as Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) took the overall lead.
It was a great day for Astana and Denmark as in nearby Champerey Jakob Fuglsang won the Criterium du Dauphine.
At the Swiss race Sanchez produced an astonishing turn of pace to escape a reduced peloton with 10km to go, while Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) charged over the finishing line at the helm of a fast moving peloton six seconds adrift.
Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Asgreen and Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) were all in the mix.
Asgreen, who came second on this year’s Tour of Flanders and third at the Tour of California, is both overall leader and the best under-25’s white jersey rider.
The 159.6km second stage was contested over three loops of a high altitude circuit featuring two mountain passes.
A select sprint involving fast riders who can also get over a hill had been predicted, and so it looked to be before the 35-year-old Sanchez made his burst.
Once his lead was established he then nursed it with the peloton closing fast at the finish line.
Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas is seventh at 18 seconds and remains firm favourite to win this eight-day race.
Tour de Suisse 2019 – stage 2 results (Langnau im Emmental – Langnau im Emmental):
| 1 | Luis León Sanchez (Astana) | 4:01:21 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | +06” |
| 3 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 4 | Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 5 | Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) | ,, |
| 6 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 7 | Omar Fraile (Astana) | ,, |
| 8 | Sven Erik Bystrøm (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 9 | Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 10 | Ben Swift (Team Ineos) | ,, |
Tour de Suisse 2019 – general classification after stage 2:
| 1 | Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:12:16 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 3 | Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) | +01” |
| 4 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 5 | Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) | +06” |
| 6 | Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) | +10” |
| 7 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | +17” |
| 8 | Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) | +18” |
| 9 | Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Ineos) | +19” |
| 10 | Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
