Luis León Sánchez (Astana) won stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse with a solo attack 11 kilometres from the line. The Spaniard, who finished six seconds up on the charging peloton, rounded off a great day for Astana, who also sealed victory at Critérium du Dauphiné moments earlier. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hasngrohe) led the peloton home to take second place, while Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) took third. Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) took fourth but moves into the race lead thanks to bonus seconds acquired earlier in the stage. Astana took charge of the race over the final two climbs of the day, blowing the peloton apart and dropping the sprinters on the steep slopes of the final ascent of Chuderhüsi. Omar Fraile made a move on the climbs, but it was Sanchez who took advantage of a lull in the peloton on the flat roads heading to the finish.ADVERTISEMENT With several sprinters making their way back to the front, Sanchez launched, and quickly built a gap as the likes of CCC Team and Team Sunweb struggled to organise a chase. Once the chase was co-ordinated, it was already too late, and Sanchez had time to slow up and celebrate before crossing the line. "I am so happy I could win today," Sanchez said. "I did not expect I could be so strong in the final, but I was lucky to hold the gap until the end. We knew we have to do this race as hard as possible as there are many big sprinters in the peloton. We had to try to escape the bunch sprint to get a chance to fight for the victory." How it unfolded Three laps of a circuit around Langdau im Emmental played host to the second stage of the race, each featuring two second-category climbs – Schallenberg (8km at 5.1 per cent) and Chuderhüsi (3km at 9.2 per cent). With the stage favouring classics riders, a bunch sprint was expected at the finish.
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