Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) confirmed that he is back to his best as he equaled the record of most stage wins in the Tour de Suisse by coming out on top in the first sprit stage of the race. In a very technical finale, his Tinkoff-Saxo team took complete control and then the Slovakian used his great bike-handling skills and fast acceleration to get the jump on his rivals after the final turn 150m from the line, winning the stage in front of Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha). Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) retained the yellow jersey.

The Tour de Suisse has always been a happy hunting ground for Peter Sagan who has taken numerous stage wins since he made his debut in the Swiss race. However, last year he left the race with just one stage win, signaling a decline in form for the strong Slovakian.

After his travails, Sagan is now back at 100% as he showed when he took a surprise overall win in the Tour of California. This set him up for a successful race in Switzerland and since he started the race he has been unstoppable.

He came up short in the prologue and the very hilly first road stage before he took his 10th stage win in the race in the hard third stage. That meant that he just missed one win if he wanted to equal Hugo Koblet and Ferdi Kübler on the list of most successful riders in the race.

He missed his first opportunity when he was only second in stage 4 but today he wrote his name into the history of the race by equaling the two local heroes. In the easiest stage of the race, Sagan used a combination of bike-handling skills and acceleration to beat riders who are usually faster than him.

Sagan benefited from a bit of luck in the finale as a strong breakaway nearly denied the sprinters the chance to sprint. This forced Etixx-QuickStep to burn their matches too early and so they were unable to give Mark Cavendish a good lead-out.

With 10km to go, Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC), Jerome Baugnies (Wanty), Matej Mohoric  (Cannondale) and Axel Domont (Ag2r) still had an advantage of 45 seconds while Adriano Malori and Francisco Ventoso (Movistar) had made a late attack, trailing the leaders by 15 seconds. Etixx-QuickStep were not getting any help and it was Julien Vermote and Zdenek Stybar who were chasing desperately.

Behind the Etixx riders, the rival sprint trains were starting to position themselves, ready to benefit from Etixx-QuickStep’s work. The gap was slowly coming down but with 7km to go, the gap was still 35 seconds.

At this point, disaster struck for Etixx-QuickStep as Stybar and Vermote both hit the deck in a wet turn. This caused the pace to go down and as no one wanted to commit themselves to the chase, Etixx-QuickStep had to use the first part of their lead-out train.

Michal Kwiatkowski and Matteo Trentin had to work hard as the gap was still 30 seconds with 5km to go and they were still not getting any help. They had to get to the 3km to go mark before BMC finally took over with Danilo Wyss.

The Swiss brought Malori and Ventoso back with 3km to go but the leaders were still 15 seconds ahead. This was the signal for Tinkoff-Saxo to hit the front and the Russian team showed impressive strength to line out 6 riders on the front.

Pavel Brutt and Nikolai Trusov both took huge turns before Matti Breschel brought the break back with 1.5km to go. They were speeding towards the final two turns that would make the finale very technical.

Michael Mørkøv set the pace until Daniele Bennati hit the front just before they went through the penultimate turn. Sagan had allowed Jurgen Roelandts and Mark Renshaw (Etixx-QuickStep) to move into the positions between him and his lead-out man while Jacopo Guarnieri, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Jempy Drucker (BMC) and Cavendish were lined out behind.

Bennati set a fast pace while Renshaw dropped back. The Italian was the final rider through the final turn which Sagan took much better than his rivals.

As soon as they exited the corner, Sagan accelerated and as he came at speed, he easily passed Roelandts. From there, the outcome was never in doubt as he took a comfortable victory, followed by Roelandts, Kristoff, Drucker and Bennati.

There were a few splits in the finale but Thibaut Pinot defended the overall lead. He takes a 42-second advantage over Geraint Thomas (Sky) into tomorrow’s stage 7 which should be another one for the sprinters. After a flat start, the riders get to the finishing circuit that has two category 3 climbs and ends with an uphill finishing straight averaging 3-4%.

The easiest stage

After the queen stage, the sprinters were finally expected to get their chance in stage 6 which brought the riders over 193.1km from Wil to Biel. After a lumpy first half with a few smaller climbs, including a category 3 climb at the midpoint, the terrain got a lot easier in the finale. The final 25km were completely flat but a technical finale could potentially challenge the fast guys.

It was dry when the riders gathered for the start but with rain forecasted in the afternoon, the riders were prepared for wet roads in the finale. All riders who finished yesterday’s stage headed out for a neutral ride before the attacking started at the point of the real start.

The break takes off

As everybody expected the stage to be firmly controlled by the sprinters, it was no surprise that the break was established right after the start. Axel Domont (Ag2r), Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC) and Matej Mohoric (Cannondale) got an immediate gap before Jerome Baugnies (Wanty) joined them.

The gap quickly went out to 2 minutes but the peloton had no intention of letting the situation getting out of control. FDJ hit the front and made sure that the gap was only 2.40 at the 34km mark.

FDJ in control

The peloton finally slowed down a bit and allowed the gap to grow to 4.50 at the 70km mark. Etixx-QuickStep had now joined forces with FDJ and they started to gradually bring the escapees back. When Rutkiewicz beat Domont and Mohoric in the KOM sprint, the gap was 3.50. As they entered the final 80km, it had grown to a little more than 4 minutes.

Michal Golas (Etixx-QuickStep) and Carter Jones (Giant-Alpecin) started to chase harder and so the gap was slowly coming down. With 65km to go, they had brought it down to 2 minutes and now they slowed down, keeping the gap stable for a long time.

Katusha start to chase

The riders were riding in pouring rain but luckily they were back on dry roads for the final 40km. Meanwhile, the escapees were still not going full gas and as Baugnies led Domont and Mohoric across the line in the first sprint, the gap was only 1.25.

Katusha also started to chase as Sergey Lagutin began to trade pulls with Jones and Golas. Meanwhile, the escapees decided to go full gas and they managed to stabilize the gap around 1.30.

Movistar on the attack

With 25km to go, Ventoso and Malori made a surprise attack and they quickly got an advantage of 10 seconds. Jones ended his work and so it was Lagutin and Golas chasing hard.

The Movistar duo did well to reduce their deficit to 40 seconds with 17km at a point when the peloton was still at 1.00. They managed to bring it down to just 20 seconds but then their progress stalled.

With 12km to go, both Lagutin and Golas blew up and so FDJ suddenly hit the front with Jeremy Roy. However, they were not really chasing and so the gap stabilized at 50 seconds. This forced Etixx-QuickStep to react, sending Stybar and Vermote to the front, but moments later those two riders crashed, setting the scene for the dramatic finale.