It was finally a day for the sprinters in the 79th Tour de Suisse as the peloton of 145 riders came rushing into Biel for a mass sprint under rainy skies and wet roads. Team Katusha’s winningest rider Alexander Kristoff sprinted in to take third place behind stage 6 winner Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo).
"I felt OK but at the end I lost my teammates at times. Jacopo [Guarnieri], Marco [Haller] and Slava [Viacheslav Kuznetsov] did a good job to bring me to the front, but unfortunately I lost Jacopo’s wheel a bit. I came behind Sagan, but I slid a bit in the corner and lost some speed, so I didn’t have a chance then because the distance to the finish line was too short. This type finish is not my favorite, for sure; I really like the high speed and long sprints.But I felt good today and the team was good also. Of course we always hope to win, but third place is a good result also," said Alexander Kristoff.
The rider just ahead of Kristoff in second place was Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal). There was no change on the general classification with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) still holding first place after six stages of racing. Second place is Geraint Thomas (Sky) at 42-seconds and Team Katusha’s Simon Špilak is third at 50-seconds.
At 193,1 km, Thursday’s stage began in Wil and featured the flattest stage of the 2015 edition making it almost a sure bet that a break would not succeed. But cycling is all about trying, and a 4-man break gave a valiant effort that was only pulled back in the last 1500 meters. The technical run to the finish line featured two corners in the last 600 m, the final one coming with only 250 m to go, and Kristoff positioned himself well but a slight slip on that last corner pulled some speed from Kristoff's sprint, leaving him in third place for the day as Peter Sagan rode in for the victory.
Friday brings stage 7 of the nine-stage Tour de Suisse. At 165 km, the stage begins in today’s finish town of Biel and ends in Düdingen. Four cat-3 climbs are featured on the course, making it a lumpy day, but the climbs aren’t too big, so some of the fast men could make it to the line to contest an uphill sprint.
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