Yesterday Peter Sagan was the big favourite to win the second stage of the Tour de Suisse but after his team had failed to catch the early break, his sprint win was only good enough to fourth. Hence, today's victory in the third stage came as a big relief as he continues his build-up towards the Tour de France.

Peter Sagan wins the third stage of the 2104 Tour de Suisse, 203 km from Sarnen to Heiden.  Thanks to the perfect mix of power, technical skill and tactical sense, the Slovakian champion of Cannondale Pro Cycling showed his bike handling abilities and sense for speed in the hectic finale.

Sagan chose to play his chances with an intelligent tactical move against Michael Albasini (Orica), who was leading the sprint out of the final corner until Sagan saw his moment to launch his winning sprint beating the Orica-GreenEdge rider to the line in time for a signature victory salute.
 
"It was a hard stage and the finale really insidious as well as unpredictable" said Sagan. "There were many possible winners in the leading group but not many chances to play.

"When I saw Henao and Evans attacking, I decided to stay in the firsts positions and to wait. I thought the two last corners could be the key moments of the sprint if we were together. In the last one, Albasini was the fastest taking the perfect trajectory - the only option I had was to take the external line and to open the gas on the final straight. Everything went perfect.
 
"After the first stage result I was pretty happy, because time trial are not my ideal races. Yesterday, I was a little disappointed because it was a good chance and I wasn't able to take it. Anyway, I had a good feeling and today I wanted to try again.

"I want to thanks my teammates for the support they gave me today - It's never easy to manage a stage like this. I'm really happy I took this success for the team and for myself, of course. As I said before the start race, Tour de Suisse is an important test for me. Having such a good feeling and taking victory, it's a big boost of confidence".
 
Today's win is the number nine for Peter Sagan at Tour de Suisse after the two took in 2011, four in 2012 and two in 2013. After three stages, Sagan is the leader of the points classification with 41 points, leading Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) by more than 20 points. Peter sits in third position in the general classification 14 seconds behind Tony Martin (Omega-Pharma) and 9 seconds behind Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Shimano). This victory is the sixth victor since January for Peter Sagan, and the tenth victory of the season for Cannondale Pro Cycling.