In the second half of the Giro d'Italia, it was apparent that Philip Deignan had ridden himself into excellent condition. Today he made good use of that form in the mountainous second stage of the Tour de Suisse but he was narrowly beaten into second by Cameron Meyer.

Philip Deignan narrowly missed out on his first Team Sky win after producing a strong breakaway performance on the second stage of the Tour de Suisse.

Deignan took second place on the run in to Sarnen, with Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) edging the Irishman out in a three-way sprint for the line which also saw Lawrence Warbasse (BMC Racing) fill the remaining spot on the podium.

Back in the peloton, Ben Swift battled over the mountainous terrain to remain in a reduced peloton, but was pipped at the line by Peter Sagan (Cannondale) in the fast kick for fourth spot.

Of the general classification contenders, Sergio Henao showed his face on the final climb of the day and finished safely in the main bunch alongside Bradley Wiggins and Peter Kennaugh. The peloton rolled home 14 seconds behind the lead trio, who had formed part of an initial six-man move.

Deignan’s efforts saw him climb to seventh on the overall standings, while Kennaugh rose one place to 10th. Tony Martin meanwhile, retained his grip on the yellow jersey and defended his advantage over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano).

After the stage, Sports Director Dan Frost praised Deignan for his efforts and was happy that the team had fulfilled their objectives.

He said: “We’d talked on the bus beforehand about Phil and Joe [Dombrowski] covering the early attacks and Phil was the one that got into the decisive break.

“He looked really strong throughout the stage but Meyer was just too fast for him in the sprint. Phil can take a lot of positives from this though. He is in great form at the moment, having built his condition at the Giro d’Italia, and he will have learned a lot from today.

“The main objective was to make sure that Sergio, Pete and Brad didn’t lose time, and we managed to do that. If the break had come back, we had Ben right there, and the rest of the team did a good job of bringing him to the line.

Stage three could see a battle between the general classification contenders with another mountainous stage ahead, and Frost stressed the importance of his riders remaining alert.

He added: “Tomorrow is going to be a day where our GC guys have to be there at the end of the stage and the whole day is up and down, so they’ll have to be on their toes.”

“I think a lot of teams will look to attack and try to get in the breakaway, but just have to make sure Sergio, Pete and Brad follow the leaders. It looks like the guys are in good shape, so we’re confident they can do that.”