"We rode at the front to protect the leaders because there were two sharp turns in the last kilometer and that could be very dangerous."

Those were the words of Astana's Daniil Fominykh after stage six at the Tour de Suisse. Fominykh and the entire peloton raced nearly 200km in warm weather on Thursday but with periodic rain and flat, wet roads that turned slippery in the final two hours of the stage.

In expectation of a mass sprint and to avoid any accidents or crashes, Astana Pro Team rode together near the front of the peloton all day. Jakob Fuglsang, Borut Božič and Alexey Lutsenko all finished 2 seconds behind stage winner Peter Sagan of Slovakia, with Miguél López five seconds further back in a complicated and technical mass sprint next to a professional football stadium. Fuglsang gained five seconds on most of his rivals

With two stages remaining López and Fuglsang are 30 seconds from a podium finish in General Classification, with good chances on Friday and Saturday to gain time on competitors before Sunday's 38km individual time trial around Bern .