EINSIEDELN (Switzerland): Italian road-race champion Elia Viviani outfoxed overall leader and triple world title winner Peter Sagan 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.
The charismatic Bora-hansgrohe captain Sagan, wearing the yellow jersey extended his advantage at the top of the general leaderboard over Australian Michael Matthews 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 victory 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 headed 120 km east from Einsiedeln crossing the Obersee lake before a challenging 8.5km climb to a summit finish at Flumserberg. – AFP
