A tense finish today, but the break held off a charging field for an exciting finish. Jhonatan Narváez took the dub on Stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse after spending much of the day in the breakaway before edging Xandro Meurisse in a two-man sprint in Bad Ragaz. It was another solid result for Narváez. He recently took three stage wins at the Giro d’Italia.
The 157.6-km stage looked like one of the few opportunities for the sprinters, but the hilly opening proved too demanding to keep the race together.
The move gets clear
After a frantic start featuring countless attacks, Narváez and Meurisse broke clear on the final major climb and quickly built a pretty big gap over the peloton.
Former world champion Michał Kwiatkowski initially joined the move but was dropped on the steep slopes. That meant it was just the the Belgian and Ecuadorian to try and fend off the field and the hungry sprinters. Visma – Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, Movistar and Jayco AlUla, combined to chase in hopes of setting up a bunch finish.
The gap steadily shrank on the rain-soaked run to the line, falling below one minute inside the final 10 kilometres, but the catch never came.
A tense finish at the Tour de Suisse
Narváez and Meurisse had a two-man sprint, and the Ecuadorian delivered thanks to his powerful kick. The sprint for third was won by Dane Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility.) Alpecin-Premier Tech’s Mathieu van der Poel, who has been quiet thus far in the Swiss race, finished fifth.
There are two days left in both the men’s and women’s Tour de Suisse. Tomorrow is a fast TT and Sunday is a doozy with multiple categorized climbs. In the women’s race, Victoria’s Sarah Van Dam is sitting third overall, and wearing the white jersey for best young rider. Racing is being broadcast on Flobikes.com, and Canadian Cycling Magazine will have a full report after.