BMC Racing Team's Mathias Frank finished runner-up to Bauke Mollema (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) on Sunday's ascent of Crans-Montana to climb into third overall at the Tour de Suisse.

Frank crossed the finish line 11 seconds after Mollema on the 117.2km stage that was shortened by snow on the original, 161.3 km race route. "I had good legs today and knew if I passed Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), maybe I could be in the leader's jersey tonight," Frank said. "I came around him with one kilometre to go, but I didn't quite have it anymore. But generally, I'm happy with the way things went." Hesjedal had put in a bid for the stage win with an attack of his own but the chasing efforts of Frank's teammates, Amaël Moinard and an attacking Tejay van Garderen, helped bring back the 2012 Giro d'Italia winner. Van Garderen said he later paid for the effort, finishing 29 seconds after Frank's group, in 25th place. "Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing because I ended up losing a bit there at the end," he said. "I think the legs just aren't as sharp as maybe they were a few weeks ago. But it's definitely good preparation for the Tour de France and I'm excited to help Mathias get on the podium."

Frank sits five seconds out of the race lead held by stage 1 individual time trial winner Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEDGE) and two seconds behind Hesjedal. Van Garderen jumped from 73rd to 22nd overall and is 58 seconds back.

BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said he was happy to have Frank follow his 12th place in Saturday's opening time trial with his best result of the season. "For us, it's a good satisfaction to see Mathias going onto the podium for the moment," Lelangue said. "On the general classification, he was pretty close to taking yellow, so it was a really good operation. Tejay is coming from the States, resting a little bit after coming to Europe and being at a nice team time trial camp. It's still a long way to the last stage. We know there are still a lot of things that can happen. But Mathias is also one of the guys who we wanted to protect and that was also the clear plan." Monday's 204.9km stage includes three categorized climbs – the last of which summits about 20 km from the finish.