Sacha Modolo again proved that he is in excellent condition when he made it over the climbs with the best in today's tough stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse. In the end, however, he was caught out when Tony Martin dropped the hammer and only hard work by world champion and teammate Rui Costa brought him back in contention.

Yesterday Sacha Modolo took a very impressive stage victory in the Tour de Suisse and today he again put his great condition on show in stage 6 of the race. The Italian was one of only a select few sprinters to make it over the late climbs with the best and he found himself in a great position going into the finale.

Unfortunately, things unravelled for him when race leader Tony Martin hit the front, splitting the peloton inside the final kilometre in a quest to set up Matteo Trentin for the win. Rui Costa proved that he can also work as a teammate when he went to the front to bring things back together and did so with 200m to go. At this point, however, it was too late for Modolo to get back to the front and he had to settle for sixth.

"Today was a delicate stage," sports director Joxean Fernandez Matxin said. "It was important to ride closely together and be ready to react in every situation.

"Our boys were perfect, just think of the good work they did to bring Rui back to the peloton after a puncture 40 kilometers from the finish, or the great show of unity shown by the world champion to assist Modolo in getting back to the group that had escaped with 1km to go.

"Sacha did well to hang on on the last climb and gave his best to get back to the front but he was a bit boxed in and paid for that."