Tour de Suisse 2014 – Stage 2 Preview

By David Hunter

Stage 1 Recap

Tony Martin smashed it! The big German produced a stunning performance and walked away with the honours. Finishing in 2nd was Tom Dumoulin and Rohan Dennis was 3rd. The big surprise was Wiggins down in 14th. Team Sky said he didn’t take any risks on the descent. The GC riders are all within 10 seconds of each other.

Stage 2 Bellinzona – Sarnen 181.8km

A very tough start to the day!

2 big HC climbs in the opening 100km of the race, will blow the peloton apart. OPQS will want to keep Tony Martin at the head of the race and they will make sure the break doesn’t make it. The Gotthardpass is 18.8km at 5.8%. The Furkapass is 14.5km at 6.2%. I would be very surprised to see any GC action as the climbs are too early in the stage, but it will be game over for the sprinters. The big question surrounds Peter Sagan….Can he get over the two climbs? Even for him, this will be difficult.

The 2nd cat Grimselpass is 5.3km at 7.3%, before the final climb of 6.7km at 6%.

Don’t be under any illusion, this is a monster stage! It will be very hard for most riders to hold onto the peloton. Sagan won a difficult stage in 2013, that had one very difficult climb. Can he cope with two?

I think the race will end with a small bunch sprint. The riders who can climb and sprint are: Slagter, Rui Costa, Albasini and Mollema.

Prediction time…

OPQS will maintain a good pace on the climbs, but their team isn’t full of climbers. They have a few but I think the pace will be quite slow over the hills. This means that Sagan should still be there and win the stage. If he doesn’t make the end, I would go for Slagter.

David Hunter

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