It was a home win in today Swiss race GP Kanton Aargau-Gippingen - the country's biggest one-day race and a perfect preparation for the Tour de Suisse - as Michal Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) won ahead of Jonathan Hivert (Sojasun) in a sprint from a small group.

The tough Swiss race GP Kanton Aargau-Gippingen was held today and consisted of 15 laps of a 12,1km circuit with 180 vertical meters on each lap. The race is known as a hard one and a tough test prior to the Tour de Suisse, and it was made no easier when a strong 8-man escape group got clear early in the race.

An in-form Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) - winner of the queen stage in the Bayern Rundfahrt - was joined by Jan Bakelants (Radioshack), Martin Kohler (BMC), Davide Cimolai (Lampre), Matthias Brände (IAM), Julien El Fares (Sojasun), Fabio Felline (Androni Giocattoli) and Gatis Smukulis (Katusha) and the group was allowed to built up a gap of a little less than 3 minutes.

However, it was evident that the peloton was unwilling to allow them too much leeway, and for a long time the gap was kept at around 2 minutes by Vacansoleil and Astana. With 4 laps to go, only Impey, Smukulis, Bakelants and Felline had survived and they fought hard to keep the peloton at nay.

They managed to extend their gap a little but when they started the 13th lap, they were only 1 minute ahead of the peloton from which riders started to attack.

Those attacks saw the formation of a new front group consisting of Impey, his teammate Stuart O'Grady, Bakelants, his teammate Bob Jungels, Tangel Kangert (Astana) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha). With two laps to go, that group had grown somewhat and now contained 16 riders.

Kolobnev managed to escape and on the last lap he was the sole leader of the race while Simone Stortoni (Lampre) chased him. Further behind, the group had grown bigger and now contained pre-race favourites like Michael Albasini and Greg Van Avermaet (BMC).

Neither Stortoni nor Kolobnev could keep the group at bay, and when the Russian was caught inside the final kilometer, the race was to be decided in a 12-rider sprinter.

Michael Albasini emerged as the fastest to repeat his 2011 win while Jonathan Hivert and Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli) completed the podium.

Result:

1. Michael Albasini 4.24.59

2. Jonathan Hivert

3. Marco Frapporti

4. Jan Bakelants

5. Tanel Kangert

6. Greg Van Avermaet

7. Simone Stortoni

8. Jonathan Fumeaux

9. Laurens De Vreese

10. Bjorn Leukemans