The Norwegian Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) won solo in the second stage of the Tour de Suisse on Monday. In the main peloton which reached the finish 38 seconds later, Italian Alberto Bettiol (EF-Education EasyPost) raised his arms believing he was the winner, except that he had forgotten that there was still one surviving the morning breakaway which had been taken up a few kilometers earlier.
Hugo Houle (Israel – Premier Tech) finished in the same group, in 22nd place, along with his leader Jakob Fuglsang (41st). As for Antoine Duchesne (Groupama-FDJ), he finished 80th with a delay of 2 minutes 12 seconds on the 198 kilometer course between Küsnacht and Aesch. His teammates Sefan Küng and Thibaut Pinot also finished in the main group.
“We were able to avoid pitfalls and the day went well. The stage was demanding, it went fast and it was hot in addition to the 3000 meters of elevation. We remained well positioned for Jakob in the final. It’s a good day for us and it’s mission accomplished! said Houle in an interview, adding that he’s starting to acclimate well to the heat.
Andreas Leknessund was part of the breakaway of the day in which we found Antoine Duchesne’s teammate, the Swiss Matteo Baddilati.
“There were three of us covering the breakaways today and in the end it was Matteo who took the right one, but unfortunately he couldn’t go all the way,” said Duchesne. “It was still a hot day and we can feel that everyone was hot yesterday. »
The leading group shrunk from ten to seven riders before Leknessund failed their fellow riders with 19 kilometers to go. Hands on the hoods, tongue sticking out and his black jersey stained with salt from perspiration, the 23-year-old cyclist forged a 15-second lead while behind, the Alpecin-Fenix and Quick Step Alpha Vinyl reduced the delay of the peloton about 2 minutes away.
About 4 kilometers later, Baddilati was swallowed up by the peloton and Leknessund continued to roll hard on the descent of the Challpass without however descending at breakneck speed to avoid seeing victory slip through his fingers. The peloton narrowed the gap to one minute, but with only 2 kilometers to go, the Norwegian and time trial specialist was able to pull out all the stops to claim his first victory of the season.
Britain’s Stephen Williams (Bahrain-Victorious) remains in yellow with a slim lead of 4 seconds over Germany’s Maximilian Schachmann (BORA – hansgrohe). The leaders of Duchesne and Houle, Stefan Küng (fifth) and Jakob Fuglsang (twelfth) are both 10 seconds from the lead. Houle is 37th (+1 minute 29 seconds) and Duchesne 78th (+8 minutes 6 seconds).
Another leg-breaking stage is scheduled for Tuesday between Aesch and Grenchen with four first, second or third category passes for a total of 3148 meters of elevation over a distance of 199 kilometers, the longest stage of the Tour.
