Peter Sagan (Cannondale) showed that he is not only a sprinter and classics specalist but also a formidable climber in today's third stage of the Tour de Suisse as the Slovakian survived a tough category 1 climb in a select group of favourites. Having escaped with three riders on the descent, he easily win the sprint to take his seventh ever stage win in the Swiss race while home rider Mathias Frank (BMC) finished 4th to take over the yellow jersey.

In 2011, Peter Sagan won his first ever mountain stage on a rainy day in the Swiss mountains as he joined the early breakaway, dug deep on the final climb, caught the lone leader Damiano Cunego on the descent and outsprinted his companion in the final dash to the line. Today he made a repeat of that win in the third stage of the Tour de Suisse in one of his most impressive climbing performances ever.

The main challenge in the stage was the steep Hasliberg climb which was located inside the final 30km of the stage and at the bottom a very strong 9-rider group consisting of some of the best classics riders in the world, had a 1-minute gap on the peloton. World champion Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Tom Boonen and Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Johan Vansummeren (Garmin), Martin Elmiger (IAM), Matti Breschel (Saxo-Tinkoff), Hayden Roulston (Radioshack) and Wilco Kelderman (Blanco) had originally been part of an 18-man breakaway but that had been whittled down to just that formidable group.

On the lower slopes, Kelderman and Albasini set a hard tempo and very early both Boonen and Terpstra had to drop off. Behind, the peloton was furious as BMC had hit the front with their entire team and early on the pace was set by Michael Schär, Marcus Burghardt and Martin Kohler.

Saxo-Tinkoff was on a mission today as their captain Roman Kreuziger wanted to gain time on GC and so the Danish team decided to put their rivals under pressure. Matteo Tosatto upped the pace even further, reeled in a short-lived break by Georg Preidler (Argos-Shimano) and severely reduced the size of the peloton.

Up ahead, Gilbert had to drop off due to mechanical problems and when the riders hit the steep part of the climb, it was too much for Vansummeren and Roulston who dropped back to the peloton. Nicolas Roche had now replaced his teammate Tosatto while team captain Kreuziger appeared to be comfortable in his wheel.

Sagan was easy to spot in his Slovakian champion's jersey and the Cannondale rider was never far away from the front positions. Despite the hard tempo which saw riders constantly dropping off, he did not appear to be troubled at all.

With 25km to go, Albasini decided to attack and the group splintered to pieces. Breschel and Elmiger immediately fell back into the peloton while Kelderman tried to chase for a few hundred meters before he was also swallowed up by the peloton.

Mathias Frank felt strong and so he asked teammate Van Garderen to up the pace and this had a dramatic effect on the peloton. Riders now dropped off in large numbers but all the time Sagan comfortably stayed in one of the top 5 positions.

It was now too much for race leader Cameron Meyer who was one of the riders to drop off, others being Diego Ulissi (Lampre), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) and Johann Tschopp (IAM). With 24km to go, Albasini was brought back into the fold and despite a short attempt to stay in the main group, the strong Swiss had to drop off.

That just left 14 riders in the front group as Van Garderen, Frank, Sagan, Kreuziger, yesterday's winner Bauke Mollema (Blanco), Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Daniel Martin (Garmin), Alexandr Dyachenko and Tanel Kangert (Astana), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r), Rui Costa and Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), Simon Spilak (Katusha) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) soldiered on. Frank was now in a position to take over the leader's jersey as 2nd placed overall Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) had crashed out of the race earlier, the Canadian having had no luck so far this season.

With 1km to the top of the climb, Kreuziger put in an attack but Frank and Sagan were quick to respond. Mollema, Visconti and Dyachenko had to dig deep but when they crested the summit, the 14 riders were still together.

The upper part of the descent was very technical and the roads were wet on another rainy day in Switzerland. Scarponi crashed hard while in 4th position, thus opening a gap to Kreuziger, Frank and Sagan who had been ahead of him. The Italian had been riding strongly on the climb but now lost 6.45, thus losing all chances of a high overall result.

Costa reacted quickly and joined the front trio but the other riders missed the move. As they climbed a small situated midway down the descent, the gap grew to more than 20 seconds as the cooperation in the front group was perfect, Sagan riding for a stage win and Kreuziger, Frank and Costa riding to gain time on GC.

As they once again headed downhill, Mollema attacked his chase group which had now lost Dyachenko but the Dutchman kept losing time to the front group. His gap was not more than 30 seconds and constantly growing.

Inside the final 2km, Sagan took a turn on the front but Kreuziger and Frank were clearly tired, thus opening a gap to the Slovakian. Costa accelerated to join the Cannondale rider but was no match when the Gent-Wevelgem winner opened up his formidable sprint. Costa had to settle for 2nd while Kreuziger and Frank just managed to gain contact to finish in the same time as Sagan.

Mollema followed 39 seconds later while Visconti won the sprint for 6th a further 7 seconds behind. Meyer finished in a small group 1.47 later than Sagan, thus losing his overall lead.

The new leader is now Frank who takes a 23-second advantage over Kreuziger into tomorrow's fourth stage. The route is mostly flat, thus offering the sprinters the first chance to show their legs in this year's Tour de Suisse.

Starting at 16.55, you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

An extremely fast start

After a hilly start, the 204,9km stage was mostly flat but the Hasliberg climb made for a tough finish to the stage. Many riders knew that this could be one for a breakaway and so the riders were in for an extremely fast start.

The first riders to gain a noticeable gap were Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Stefan Denifl (IAM) and Jesus Herrada (Movistar) who at one point were more than 1 minute ahead of the peloton. The composition was, however, not the right one and so it was brought back a little later.

The peloton splits

The furious pace saw the peloton split into two and for a long time, the stage developed into a pursuit between those two big groups. After more than 50km of racing, 18 riders finally got clear and as the peloton slowed down, the two bunches merged.

Hayden Roulston (RadioShack), Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma QuickStep), Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma QuickStep), Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Sharp), Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Maxime Bouet (AG2R), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R), Wilco Kelderman (Blanco), Matti Breschel (Saxo Tinkoff), Michael Morkov (Saxo Tinkoff), Michael Albasini (ORICA), Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel), Jérémy Roy (FDJ), Tom Dumoulin (Argos Shimano), Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling), Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), and Rémi Pauriol (Sojasun) built up a gap of 3.05 but Movistar and Astana had missed the move and so they started to chase. They brought the gap down to 1.30 but the strength of the break forced them to use almost their entire teams in the pursuit.

The front group splits in two

The front group split in two with Gilbert, Boonen, Terpstra, Vansummeren, Breschel, Elmiger, Albasini, Kelderman and Roulston leaving their companions behind. The remainder of the break was caught by the peloton which was completely strung out due to the hard pace set by Movistar and Astana.

The break was, however, a formidable one and the gap started to grow. At one point it was back up to 2.10 but when they hit the small category 4 climb just before the bottom of the Hasliberg, they started to lose time. Saxo-Tinkoff had now taken responsibility for the chase with Mørkøv and Daniele Bennati doing the bulk of the work.

Moments later, they hit the bottom of the final climb and BMC hit the front of the peloton. Up ahead the front group started to splinter, thus starting off the exciting finale from which Sagan came out triumphant.

Result:

1. Peter Sagan 4.46.27

2. Rui Costa

3. Roman Kreuziger

4. Mathias Frank

5. Bauke Mollema +0.39

6. Giovanni Visconit +0.47

7. Daniel Martin

8. Thibaut Pinot

9. Tanel Kangert

10. Jean-Christophe Peraud

General classification:

1. Mathias Frank 7.39.38

2. Roman Kreuziger +0.23

3. Rui Costa +0.35

4. Giovanni Visconti +0.53

5. Thibaut Pinot +0.57

6. Bauke Mollema +1.08

7. Daniel Martin +1.23

8. Tanel Kangert +1.26

9. Jean-Christophe Peraud +1.28

10. Tejan Van Garderen +1.32

Points classification:

1. Bauke Mollema 23

2. Mathias Frank 22

3. Roman Kreuziger 16

4. Cameron Meyer 15

5. Peter Sagan 15

Mountains classification:

1. Roman Kreuziger 12

2. Mathias Frank 8

3. Domenico Pozzovivo 8

4. Thibaut Pinot 6

5. Peter Sagan 6

Sprint classification:

1. Enrique Sanz 12

2. Hayden Roulston 6

3. Niki Terpstra 6

4. Adrian Saez 6

5. Michael Albasini 3

Teams classification:

1. Astana 23.04.34

2. Movistar +0.30

3. Ag2r +0.32

4. BMC +1.44

5. IAM +3.00