Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) has won the third stage of the Tour de Suisse from Oberstammheim to Gansingen as Stefan Kung (BMC Racing Team) held onto the overall lead.
The riders faced a tough parcours on the 182.8-kilometre third stage with five category 3 climbs in the final 70 kilometres. Despite the challenging route, the stage was expected to finish in a bunch sprint.
On a day of cooler temperatrues and heavy rain, a three-man break with Calvin Watson (Aqua Blue Sort), Filippo Zaccanti (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) went clear inside the first five kilometres. This move enabled Watson to hold on to the points jersey with Zaccanti also maintaining his grip on the mountains jersey.
BMC Racing kept a steady pace at the head of the peloton before BORA-hansgrohe took over. As the trio were reeled back, Chris Juul Jensen (Mitchelton-Scott) went clear but was caught with nine kilometres remaining. Despite further efforts from Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and Arthur Vichot (Groupama-FDJ) who was caught with just a few hundred metres left, it came back together for a sprint finish.
Colbrelli launched his sprint with 250 metres to go, and edged out Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) for his second victory of the season
Sonny Colbrelli – “It’s a fantastic day. It’s a very important victory for me and for the team. Thanks to my teammates, that did an amazing work in the final. Padun, Gasparotto, the Izagirre brothers, everybody. I went from a long way out in the sprint, a long, long way out so that I could anticipate strong sprinters like Gaviria and Sagan. As I did at Paris-Nice last year. Yesterday I had a bad day and today I wanted to bounce back and I succeeded thanks to my teammates’ help too. I’m really happy”.
