Conor Dunne on the front of the breakaway during stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse. The peloton would split to pieces but Dunne and team mates Lasse Norman Hansen made the breakaway.
Aqua Blue Sport grabs Tour de Suisse jersey
Aqua Blue Sport has taken a coveted classification leaders' jersey in a WorldTour race after two of its riders went on the attack at the Tour de Suisse.
Lasse Norman Hansen and Conor Dunne both infiltrated the early breakaway.
And while the five-man group would be caught, the Aqua Blue Sport duo cleaned up in the climbers’ classification.
Dunne led out Hansen for the primes, with the Dane taking maximum points on the first three of four climbs. That was enough to put him in the lead of that classification.
And while the breakaway was recaptured and Hansen and Dunne lost time, it was a great day at the office for the team.
Advertisement
“I’m tired after today’s stage; it was a long day up the road," Hansen said afterwards.
"I am really, really happy with the work Conor and I did in the breakaway. I'm delighted to come away with the blue mountain’s jersey and looking forward to the next stages.”
Aqua Blue Sport's Lasse Norman Hansen in the blue climbers' at the Tour de Suisse.
Related News
In the early breakaway with them were: Nick Dougall (Dimension Data), Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie) and Nick Van der Lijcke (Roompot).
The team went into the stage, four laps through Cham and over 172 km, looking to attack.
And when they made the escape they built a lead of over seven minutes at one point.
When Hansen punctured from the breakaway, Dunne waited for him. The Irish rider then towed him back, before sitting up himself and being caught by the peloton.
Temperatures were close to 30 degrees Celsius and with a climb to be negotiated each lap the field split considerably.
While the breakaway gained a large gap, BMC Racing was ever-attentive as they had Rohan Dennis and Stefan Kung 1st and 2nd overall after yesterday’s TT.
Heading into the last lap the gap between breakaway and peloton had almost been cut by half. And with 25km remaining the breakaway was caught.
Around the same time the four out front were mopped up, a crash in the peloton saw Dennis fall.
He would not regain contact, with the race lead passing to his 23-year-old team mate Kung.
By the end of the stage the peloton had whittled down to just 59 riders; a combination of the heat, the climbs and a number of crashes taking their toll.
The bunch sprint that decided matters was won by Philippe Gilbert (QuickStep) from Paddy Bevin (Cannondale Drapac).
Dunne would finish 159th in a group 12:27 down, alongside compatriot Ryan Mullen (Cannondale-Drapac), who was 144th.
Philip Deignan (Team Sky) finished in a group 9:53 down, in 129th place on the day.
Aaron Gate was Aqua Blue Sport’s best finisher, in 14th place. However, the highlight of the team’s day was taking the climbers’ jersey in a race of this stature.
Topics
