Knowing that today's final climb was too tough for him, John Degenkolb put himself at the service of the Giant-Shimano climbers and did a great lead-out to the bottom of the ascent. In the end, it was mission accomplished as Tom Dumoulin finished 15th and defended his second place overall.

The third stage of the Tour de Suisse was another very active day in the saddle with a profile in the latter stages that suited the puncheurs rather than the skill set of John Degenkolb. As a result John helped in the pace setting on the approach to the final hill finish and from here Tom Dumoulin was the first over the line in 15th place.

The day started out with a small escape of just two riders but the chasing peloton did not approve of the move and eventually brought the riders back by the mid-way point. This sparked a series of attacks and four riders moved clear. These four were then joined by two move before the group was whittled down under the pressure of a fast closing peloton in the final 20km.

One rider moved clear and behind Warren Barguil took the opportunity of the penultimate climb of the day to test his legs on the attack. This helped to string out the peloton but he could not break the elastic and pull clear. Team Giant-Shimano then grouped at the front and picked up the pace on the testing descent as the final climb approached. Degenkolb was part of the pace making here showing the team’s intentions of riding as a domestique on the stage.

As the final climb started the front of the race was together with a much reduced front group, still containing Dumoulin, Lawson Craddock, Georg Preidler and Barguil. Craddock was well placed in the final kilometre but faded as the sprint ahead opened up. It was Peter Sagan (Cannondale) who took the stage honours while the top of the general classification remained the same with Dumoulin trailing Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quickstep) by a mere six seconds. Team Giant-Shimano have also moved into the lead of the team classification after today’s stage.

Tomorrow should present a different opportunity for the team with a fairly steady 160.4km stage from Heiden to Ossingen which will suit Degenkolb much better than the past two days.

“The stage went well for us today," coach Addy Engels said. "We stayed calm when the breaks were coming and going during the stage and stuck to our plan of getting Tom and Lawson into the best position at the bottom of the final climb.

“On the approach to this in the final kilometres the guys did a great job doing what was basically a lead-out to the bottom with strong turns form John and Koen [De Kort] before pulling off and leaving four guys in the select front group for the finish.

“Lawson thought afterwards that he had wasted his efforts too early but I think that he still rode well at the finish to finish in the top 20 together with Tom. Having four guys in the front group and the others giving strong support shows that the whole team is at a good level here.

“Tomorrow we will focus on sprinting with John. He was today feeling better than yesterday and is getting back into race rhythm following his high-altitude training period.”