Tour de Suisse: Mathieu van der Poel wins stage 2

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Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) took his fifth victory of the season on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse. The Dutchman beat Maximilian Schachmann (Bora Hansgrohe) convincingly after the pair escaped in the closing stages to hold off the chase, while Gino Mader (Bahrain Victorious) claimed third.

Van der Poel attacked from a select group with 3.4km to go and looked to be on course for a solo win after Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Premier Tech) was unable to hold the wheel. Only Schachmann was able to mount a chase and the German made contact with the lone leader with 1.8km to, with Mader closing just before the sprint. 

However, when van der Poel opened the throttle there was no response with Schachmann settling for second. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) led home a group of overall contenders four seconds later, with Julian Alaphilippe, Richard Carapaz, Michael Woods and Fuglsang all finishing in the same time.

Overnight leader Stefan Küng (Groupama FDJ) managed to hold onto his yellow jersey by just a second with Alaphilippe up to second and Schachmann now in third.

How it unfolded

Claudio Imhof (Swiss national team), Tom Bohli (Cofidis), Nicolas Zukowsky (Rally Cycling) and Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally Cycling) formed the early break and the quartet established a near six-minute lead in the early kilometres of the stage. 

On the Ghoch climb the advantage had dropped to 5:30 as Deceuninck-QuickStep controlled the pace of the peloton for world champion Alaphilippe but by the time the break hit the climb of Oberricken with 43km to go the gap had dwindled to 3:48 with Kung’s men also joining in the pursuit.

Bohli attacked just at the summit of the ascent and moved clear but he was joined by the impressive Imhof on the descent with the two Rally riders unable to respond. In the valley it was Imhof who pushed the pace with Bohli holding on, and the peloton at 1:58.

Behind, the chase had become more intense with, Team BikeExchange and Alpecin leading the peloton. There were several splits in the main field on the descent but with two climbs remaining – one of them uncategorized – the leading pair only held a lead of just over a minute. Imhof saw off Bohli on the foot of the first ascent and even managed to make it to the final climb of the Litschstrasse with a slender lead.

However, he was reeled in by Alaphilippe’s teams before a volley of attacks split the yellow jersey. Eddie Dunbar was active for Ineos Grenadiers but it was Woods, Alaphilippe and Schachmann who were the most active as the climbers looked to try and distance van der Poel before the summit.

Their offensive was unsuccessful and the Dutchman made it into a nine-man move that crested the top of the climb a few seconds clear of the yellow jersey.

It looked as though the nine riders would decide the stage in a sprint but van der Poel pushed on, sensing hesitancy among some of his colleauges, and stole a march that only Schachmann could genuinely follow. It mattered little at the line though, although the German picked up some valuable time bonuses, with van der Poel taking his first win since a stage of Tirreno Adriatico back in March.