Alexander Kristoff is using the Tour de Suisse to build his condition for his big goal at the Tour de France. After finishing 5th in yesterday's stage, he went one better today and is pleased that his legs are feeling better and better.

Wednesday stage 5 of the 78th Tour de Suisse was all about the last corner before the finish line. Narrow roads and a series of tight corners marked the course for the mass sprint. Team rider Aleksandr Porsev put Katusha sprinter Alexander Kristoff into perfect position and the Norwegian rider came through the corner third with 400 meters to go. A little jostling for position gave Kristoff fourth place on the stage.

“Porsev did a great job again; actually the entire team did," he said. "I came through the last corner in the third position but I had too much speed and had to brake and lost some ground. I had lost Porsev two times on the way in and had used up some energy getting back on the wheel but the team worked so much for me.

"I felt even better than yesterday but Modolo was quite strong there in the final so I’m not sure I could have beaten him under any circumstances. It was a hard sprint, especially with that corner at the end. Everyone was fighting for that corner.”

Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) positioned himself just right to take the win, opening up his sprint to come around Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and earn the win. John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) was third with Alexander Kristoff in fourth place.

The stage began in Ossingen and ended in Büren A.D. Aare. Three riders were away for most of the day, building a gap of more than five minutes as they took on the four rated climbs featured on the 184 km course. Katusha lent leg power to the chase and the peloton was back together with 10,4 km to go, setting up the opportunity for a mass sprint. With speeds high and roads narrow, a crash occurred just after the last corner, taking down several riders including yesterday’s stage winner Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step).

Today’s finish made no changes to the general classification and Tony Martin (OPQS) still leads by six seconds to Giant-Shimano’s Tom Dumoulin and ten seconds to Peter Sagan. Sergei Chernetckii is still 24th.

Four days of racing remain in the 2014 Tour de Suisse, including Thursday’s stage six. At 184 km the stage begins in Büren A.D. Aare and ends in Delémont. The profile includes three rated climbs with the last one coming at less than 10 km from the finish.