Philip Deignan among last world class men standing on summit finish at Tour de Suisse

After his 2nd place on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse, Philip Deignan excelled in the mountains today, finishing at the head of the race in a small select group that included the yellow jersey.

Philip Deignan last weekend demonstrated his ride in the Giro d'Italia had improves his condition further when he took 2nd on the second stage of the Tour de Suisse from the remains of the main escape of the day and went close to taking the yellow jersey.

And on today's stage 8 of the same race in the mountains of Switzerland, the Irish man riding for Team Sky was once again to the fore, coming home in a small group on a day when some of the main contenders in the race lost time.

The Letterkenny man will take great confidence from the fact that as the peloton whittle down to a very small select group up the Verbier climb to the finish, he was among the last men standing.

He would finish in sixth place, or second over the line from a group of six riders just seconds down on four men who clipped away in the closing kilometres.

The stage was won by Colombia's Johan Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) who attacked late heading for the summit, with Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) finishing 2nd just three seconds behind alongside Bauke Mollema (Belkin).

Some 13 seconds would elapse before Eros Capecchi (Movistar) came home for 4th place, with the group Deignan was in another one second adrift.

The sprint for 5th place from that group was won by Janier Acevedo (Garmin-Sharp), with Deignan just behind him in 6th and yellow jersey Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) in 7th.

Colombia's Johan Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) wins by three seconds from with Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Bauke Mollema (Belkin); all three had attacked the group Deignan was in in the closing kilometres.

The stage was dominated by an eight man breakaway that went clear early into the 219km trek from Delémont to Verbier, taking in a route where the hors category final ascent was the only tough climb of the day.

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In that escape were Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Sébastien Minard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Danilo Wyss (BMC), Gregory Rast (Trek Factory Racing), Nathan Brown (Garmin-Sharp), Laurens De Vreese (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Mateusz Taciak (CCC) and Deignan’s team mate , Christian Knees.

They built a lead of six minutes halfway through the stage but with a lot of teams keen to contribute to the chase and so much climbing to finish off the day, the escapes chances looked doomed.

Much of the final 30km was uphill, but it was the last 13.4km that represented the climb proper.

And while there were plenty of attacks from the breakaway and the peloton on the climb, the race came down to a group of around 30 going for stage honours with less than 5km remaining; a number that continued to diminish all the way to the top.

Chaves made his moved with 2km remaining after responding to an attack by Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling) and Kreuziger and once he hit the front and pressed for home in full flight there was only going to be one outcome.

While Deignan did not go as close to victory has he had done on stage 2 when just edged out by Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge); today was a war of attrition from which only the best riders in the world emerged strong at the front and Deignan was one of them.

The only thing in his way of his first ride in the Tour de France is whether his team believes riding both the Giro and Tour is too much; though having broken his collar bone early in the season he does not have huge miles on the clock.

Deignan will have another chance tomorrow when the race hits the mountains again on the final stage of this year’s race.