Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan was not far from the front group at the finish line of stage 2 in Tour de Suisse after having fought hard on the descent from the 4-kilometer, 9%, climb close to the finish line. Sagan was ultimately 10th, 14 seconds off stage winner Durasek and now sits 5th in the general classification.
 
Following the stage finish in Risch-Rotkreuz, Peter Sagan comments that he was disappointed not to compete for the stage win.
 
“Today's stage was difficult and as you saw, those who finished up front were mostly climbers. I tried to be in front, but in the last hill I did not manage it. I lost about 15 seconds at the top and then I couldn’t catch up on the way to the finish so I finished in 10th place. Too bad because I used up quite a lot of energy and spent power to be in front, but to no avail. Never mind, at least I tried it and we'll see what happens tomorrow”, says Peter Sagan.

Stage 2 presented the riders with 161.1 undulating kilometers, where they had to tackle the 4km climb of 9% to Michaelskreuz twice. The last top came with just 12km to the finish line, where a select group, mainly of climbers, had built a lead of around 15 seconds to the group of Peter Sagan. Despite his efforts to close the gap on the descent towards the finish line, the stage was decided among the front group, where Kristijan Durasek (LAM) took the win.
 
“The last 4km climb was done at a very high pace and Peter was not far from the front on the top. He kept a good pace and only lost a bit more on the final part. He more or less kept the distance on the descent and finished 14 seconds off. We knew that his chances depended on how the last climb was raced and how big the group was. So, we can be fairly pleased considering how the race developed”, says Tinkoff-Saxo’s sports director Tristan Hoffman before adding:
 
“Rafal Majka struggled a bit on the last ascent and finished 37th. He has had five weeks off racing, so he wasn’t on top on the final climb, where he lost time to some of the other climbers. Overall, the team did their best and also put in an effort at the front to decrease the time gap to the breakaway before the finale. Now, tomorrow is another hard stage with some hills in the final part, but I think we will get the chance to go for the win with Peter”.