Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) outfoxed overall leader Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) to clinch stage five of the Tour de Suisse on Wednesday.
It was a second straight win on the Tour for the Deceuninck-Quick Step sprinter, who cut the last corner tightly to gain a yard on a stunned Sagan on a cobbled, slight incline at the end of a 177km run from Muenchenstein to Einsiedeln.
Sagan extended his advantage at the top of the general leaderboard over Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) by four seconds.
Sagan sidled up to Viviani after the winning post to congratulate him with a smile and handshake, but was less charitable when asked about the winning move.
“They didn’t do anything the whole day, but yeah, it was a good move,” a stone faced Sagan said with his hands on his hips.
Sagan and Viviani are likely to contend for the green sprint points jersey at the upcoming Tour de France.
Viviani was radiant after his seventh stage win of the season.
“The winning move came in the lead out,” Viviani said. “We didn’t do much work, we can’t take long-range wins, we count on grabbing the win at the end,” he explained.
Having missed out on a stage win at the Giro d’Italia, where he was stripped of a stage win for hindering a rival in a sprint, Viviani says he wants to make up for it at the Tour de France.
“There’ll be some suffering now,” said Viviani in reference to the three mountainous stages and the time-trial which remain on the Swiss tour.
“Then two weeks training before the Tour, I think I’ll be ready,” he smiled.
Thursday’s sixth stage heads 120.2km east from Einsiedeln crossing the Obersee lake before a challenging category climb near the town of Wildhaus and finishing in Flumserberg.
?️ WATCH ?️ @deceuninck_qst's @eliaviviani and @BORAhansgrohe's @petosagan played out a ferocious battle in stage five's sprint finish at the @tds. See how it played out…#TourdeSuisse pic.twitter.com/K0InbQBbx4
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) June 19, 2019
Tour de Suisse 2019 – stage 5 results (Münchenstein – Einsiedeln):
| 1 | Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 4:18:26 |
| 2 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 3 | Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 4 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 5 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 6 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 7 | Fabian Lienhard (Switzerland) | ,, |
| 8 | Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 9 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 10 | Patrick Bevin (CCC) | ,, |
Tour de Suisse 2019 – general classification after stage 5:
| 1 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | 15:55:48 |
| 2 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | +14” |
| 3 | Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +21” |
| 4 | Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) | +22” |
| 5 | Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) | +27” |
| 6 | Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) | +38” |
| 7 | Patrick Konrad (Bora-hansgrohe) | +39” |
| 8 | Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Ineos) | +40” |
| 9 | Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) | ,, |
| 10 | Winner Anacona (Movistar) | ,, |
