Peter Sagan has won his fourth stage of the 2012 Tour de Suisse cycling race, again showing unmatchable power in a difficult finish.
The finish to the 199 km stage from Wittnau to Bischofszell was littered with traffic furniture followed by a tight left turn and a short straight stretch angling slightly uphill.
Spider Tech rider led into final turn, but Orica-GreenEdge’s Michael Albisini overtook him on the outside while Sky’s Ben Swift came up on the inside. Sagan tried to squeeze past Albisini on the outside and got pinched off, almost hitting the barrier.
Somehow Sagan didn’t lose his momentum; he fell in behind Albisini around the corner, and blasted past Albisini and Swift in the final 100 meters with a tremendous show of power.
“The finishes in the Tour de Suisse are never straight so you need to invent something to find some space.” said Sagan on the Liquigas website. “I had to work harder today firstly to get a leading position in the finale, and secondly to launch the sprint. I went flat out into the last corner so I wouldn’t get boxed in and even brushed the barriers.
“I was blocked in that moment but as soon as Swift kicked, I knew I could come around and I did. I want to dedicate this win to the team who reeled in the breakaway at the end and make me feel important every day.
“We’ve now got two demanding stages to wrap up this Tour de Suisse. I want to make the most of them so I can work hard and improve my condition for the Tour de France.”
Sagan’s run of wins is surely over now, as the Tour moves on to a time trial and two mountain stages. On June 30, Sagan starts his first Tour de France, where he will be in a much deeper pool of much bigger fish. Instead of facing half-a-dozen of the world’s best, he will be facing the 200 best riders in the world.
To win sprint stages, Sagan will need to work with a leadout train, something with which he has little experience. He might fare well on some intermediate stages, but again he will be facing a deeper talent pool with much greater motivation.
The Tour will show exactly where young Slovakian champion stands among the best in the world—but he is young, and however well he does at this year’s Tour, he will surely do better in the next, and the next after that.
Stage Six was destined to end in a bunch sprint, but that didn’t stop the breakaway attempts.
After a half-dozen thwarted attempts, a four-rider breakaway escaped: Baden Cooke (OGE), Vicente Reynes (LTB), Matteo Montaguti (ALM), Rubens Bertogliatti (TT1). The peloton was wiloling to let this group go—the best-placed rider was Matteo Montaguti, 10:33 behind in 65th place. This group took off 34 km into the stage; almost immediately, Saxo Bank’s Rubens Bertogliatti decided to join.
His presence ruined the breakaway—he was 25th, only 1:45 behind the leader. Movistar immediately picked up the pace, unwilling to let Bertogliatti get away. After ten km, Bertogliatti did the gentlemanly thing and dropped off the break, giving the original four attackers a feeble chance.
Feeble, because this was the last stage for the sprinters. Liquigas was unquestionably going to ride for Peter Sagan, to get him a fourth stage win, and the rest of the sprinters’ teams were going to battle to beat Sagan. Katusha’s Oscar Friere and Movistar’s Jose Joaquin Rojas were both perfect for the slightly uphill sprint ending Stage Six, and would be eager to challenge the youngster from Liquigas.
These four riders worked hard, but Cooke and Reynes were caught five km from the line; Montaguti and Vinther lasted until the two-km banner, but that was it.
A number of sprinters were massed at the front of the peloton coming up on the 1-km banner—Rabobank’s Matti Breschel, Katusha’s Oscar Freire, Lamprte’s Alessandro Pettachi, and Astana’s Francesco Gavazzi were all maneuvering to get good position to start their sprints.
A roundabout and a couple of traffic islands interrupted the bunch, splitting it into three parts; when it reformed a Spider tech rider leapt into the lead.
Albisini took the lead into the final left-hander, with Sagan on his wheel and Swift coming up even on the inside. Sagan couldn’t get by on the outside; through no fault of Albisini, the GreenEdge rider blocked Sagan almost into the barrier.
This mistake of trying the wrong side would have stalled most riders. Sagan however, had another gear. He calmly dropped in behind Albisini, then burst out past both Albisini and Swift.
Albisini dropped back; his leadout rider Allan Davis crossed the line just ahead of him, while Swift and Sagan were several lengths ahead.
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| Tour de Suisse Stage Six | |||
|
| rider | team | time |
| 1 | Peter Sagan | Liquigas-Cannondale | 4:30:08 |
| 2 | Ben Swift | Sky |
|
| 3 | Allan Davis | Orica GreenEdge |
|
| 4 | Michael Albasini | Orica GreenEdge |
|
| 5 | Oscar Freire | Katusha |
|
| 6 | Lloyd Mondory | Ag2R |
|
| 7 | Marco Marcato | Vacansoleil-DCM |
|
| 8 | Alessandro Bazzana | Team Type 1-Sanofi |
|
| 9 | Matti Breschel | Rabobank |
|
| 10 | Francesco Gavazzi | Astana |
|
| General Classification after Stage Six | |||
|
| rider | team | time |
| 1 | Faria Da Costa | Movistar Team | 25:23:38 |
| 2 | Frank Schleck | RadioShack-Nissan | 0:00:08 |
| 3 | Roman Kreuziger | Astana | 0:00:15 |
| 4 | Thibaut Pinot | FDJ-Big Mat | 0:00:19 |
| 5 | Nicolas Roche | Ag2R La Mondiale | 0:00:21 |
| 6 | Thomas Löfkvist | Sky Procycling |
|
| 7 | Alejandro Valverde | Movistar Team | 0:00:23 |
| 8 | John Gadret | Ag2R | 0:00:24 |
| 9 | Mikel Nieve | Euskaltel-Euskadi | 0:00:26 |
| 10 | Thomas Danielson | Garmin-Barracuda | 0:00:29 |
