This week MTN-Qhubeka is riding their biggest stage race ever at the Tour de Suisse and they got it all off to a flying start when climber Sergio Pardilla did a fantastic prologue. Unfortunately, they had a difficult first road stage as Jacques Janse Van Rensburg crashed out on a foggy descent.

Cameron Meyer (Orica Greenedge) won the 2nd stage of the Tour de Suisse after rejoining the break in the final 10km’s. Meyer outsprinted Philip Deignan (Team Sky) and Larry Warbasse (BMC Racing) after the 3 riders kept the chasing peloton at bay. Both Louis Meintjes and Sergio Pardilla would finish in the reduced peloton after a tough day of climbing, which included two HC climbs and two cat 2 climbs.

The early racing saw 6 riders go clear of the peloton with Bjorn Thurau (Europcar), Reto Hollenstein (IAM Cycling) and Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty Groupe Gobert) the other 3 riders joining Meyer, Deignan and Warbasse. Linus Gerdemann from Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung did attempt to cross over to the break once they reached a 3 minute lead and at one stage was only a minute behind the leaders. Unfortunately Gerdemann just couldn’t make it across.

The leaders enjoyed a 5’45″ lead for the better part of the day and the chase was headed up by Garmin Sharp and Omega Pharma Quickstep. The leaders worked well together and it was only on the final categorised climb of the day where the attacks from the break and peloton started. Going over the top, Warbasse and Deignan lead Meyer by 25″ but the Aussie was able to rejoin the leaders with just 10km to go. The accelarations from the peloton weren’t enough to reel in the break though.

Some unfortunate news from the day though was that Jacques Janse van Rensburg had to abandon the race after crashing out on the wet and foggy decent of the Grimselpass HC category climb. The young South African was looking good and on course to help secure a high team position for Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung with Meintjes and Pardilla still in the peloton too.

"Sergio and Louis stayed safe in the bunch they were always in a good position," Directeur Sportif Jens Zemke said. "Linus tried to bridge to the leaders and was solo for 40km. Jacques crashed and had to stop the race with a knee injury. It was a super tough day for our boys."