Close finish in Tour de Suisse stage 2

27 June 2009

Bernhard Eisel (Team Columbia-Highroad) won a photo finish in the second stage of the Tour de Suisse, outsprinting Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) and former world champion Oscar Freire (Rabobank). Team Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara remains in the overall lead, 22 seconds ahead of Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) and 25 seconds in front of Andreas Klöden (Astana).

The final sprint was so close that none of the riders was even sure who had won. It was Eisel's 19th career win and his first this season.

"It was a very technical finish," Eisel said. "Fortunately, [teammate] George Hincapie gave me a really good lead-out, so I was in a great position to go for it and go for the stage win.

"The only problem was that when I started sprinting, the line seemed like it was never going to arrive!," continued Eisel. "I was nervous about Ciolek and Freire, too. They could have overtaken me right on the finish line. Fortunately I just managed to hang on. But it was close!"

Race leader Fabian Cancellara had only slight scare on the day, when Tony Martin (Team Columbia-Highroad) attacked. The German was only 31 seconds behind the Swiss rider, who won the last intermediate sprint of the day and picked up three bonus seconds to build upon his lead.

"It was obviously a serious threat to the jersey but the team was working perfectly all day and in the end we had complete control over the situation," said Cancellara. "The fact that the form has arrived just now makes it uncertain how far I can take it during this race. I am first and foremost happy about getting another day in yellow."

Ciolek came within a whisker of his second win this season. "That was a very close decision," said Milram Directeur Sportif Christian Henn. "The results will give Gerald self-confidence for the next sprint."

The trio of Javier Armendia (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Josef Benetseder (Vorarlberg-Corratec) and Hervé Duclos-Lasalle (Cofidis) led the race in a breakaway for much of the stage, building a lead of up to 2:30 over the peloton.

When the three escapees were caught with 25 kilometres to go, Team Columbia-Highroad's Tony Martin attacked. The time trial specialist was first over the day's category one climb with 21 kilometres to the finish, giving Martin the mountain classification jersey. Martin, too, was caught with six kilometres to go, and the sprinters' teams took over control of the race.

The race was overshadowed by a serious accident involving a security motorcycle riding behind the field. The rider crashed on on a curve and fell quite a distance to the street below. He suffered multiple fractures and had to be transported to hospital by helicopter.

Monday's third stage runs 195 km from Davos to Lumino. The main climb is the category one Lukmanier Pass about two-thirds of the way through, but the stage ends relatively flat and another mass sprint is expected.

Results:

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