Greg Van Avermaet finished third and Silvan Dillier was seventh for the BMC Racing Team in Tuesday's bunch sprint finish at the Tour de Suisse.

Michael Matthews (ORICA-GreenEDGE) took the win ahead of Monday's winner, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo), as Van Avermaet earned his 11th top three result of the season. Dillier's result was a season best. He was also first among all Swiss riders on the stage.

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Fabio Baldato said the combination of a moderately hard climbing, combined with a slightly uphill finish, made the 193.2-kilometer race a perfect one for Van Avermaet.

"It was a perfect parcours for him," Baldato said. "Greg is there. He is really good. He did a good job to be in position. The work from Danilo Wyss to help him today was really amazing."

Van Avermaet said he found himself near the front a bit earlier than he expected after Matthews' team stopped its sprint lead out with 500 meters to go.

"On a finish line this, you can get boxed in, so I waited a few moments to launch my sprint," Van Avermaet said. "I went a little bit too early in the sprint. For sure, it would be hard to beat Matthews in a sprint like this. But I tried and I am pretty happy with my third place."

In the overall standings, Tom Dumoulin (Team Giant-Alpecin) kept the lead while BMC Racing Team's Ben Hermans finished in the front group again to remain 36 seconds off the lead in 12th place.

Wednesday's stage is 237.3 km and features a mountain-top finish at the ski station in Sölden, Austria.

"Ben is still there," Baldato said. "He has the experience and has been keeping his tempo on the climbs. it will be a hard climb for him, but I am confident he can do a good stage and if he loses time, then maybe he can get it back in the final time trial."