Welcome to the opening day of the 2017 Tour de Suisse for the first of only two sprint stages. Whilst the much-discussed mountain startlist is full of heavy hitters the sprinters obviously weren't prepared to sacrifice 7 days of hell for two opportunities for wins. As such it's worse quality than the CT. However some teams now have a strong interest in getting their man to the line for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime PT stage win. The favourites today are likely Vesely or the Eritrel duo of Afewerki and Van Heerden, but if you want a hot take watch out for classics man Van Avermaet. He'll be an outside threat for victory here and in the hilly stage later in the week. This stage has a deceptive amount of climbing, and that KOM climb isn't exactly easy. Let's see the highlights of the days before the finale:
The breakaway today was formed with minimal fuss, in the move were Schlechter, Brockhoff, Gonzalez Salas, Jacobs and Predatsch. No home rider but a couple of Germans in amongst it as the peloton rode to the border in Leuggern before a German TTT tomorrow.
Van Avermaet crashed early on along with 8 or 9 others - fortunately none were injured and all made it safely back to the peloton.
A mix of sprint and GC teams shared the work today, with Wiesenhof in charge mostly. Moser, Jayco and Eritrel helped with the pacemaking duties.
The sprint & KOM points were mostly dominated by the same 3 or 4 names as each rider slowly were dropped and got caught, here were the results:
KOM 1
Schlechter
Jacobs
Brockhoff
KOM 2
Brockhoff
Jacobs
Predatsch
Sprint 1
Predatsch
Brockhoff
Schlechter
KOM 3
Schlechter
Brockhoff
Jacobs
KOM 4
Schlechter
Brockhoff
Jacobs
Sprint 2
Schlechter
Vesely
Van Avermaet
KOM 5
Schlechter
Koren
Priedler
We join you now with 10km and the sole survivor and today's King of the Mountains, Pit Schlechter has 1'20 on the pack. The 1 minute = 10km rule of thumb is on his side, but can he hold off the fast-approaching peloton?
Meanwhile Kritskiy with an ill-timed puncture and service taking a while - most of his team is back in support but his GC hopes look done and dusted already!
The chase for the Luxembourgian is putting many riders under pressure and the first favourite is being dropped - it's Fonseca amongst a group of domestiques that didn't quite make it over the hills with good enough legs.
Only Eritrel seem to be organised enough as a team for the sprint - Van Avermaet and Vesely have no teammates left around them. The catch of the plucky Schlechter is made with 4.4km to go.
3km to go and three Africans on the front - Debesay leads out Aferwerki and then Van Heerden. Behind them are Van Avermaet, Vesely, Blythe, Alaphilippe, Bellis, Bibby and Ringheim. Then four names who don't want to lose any time to each other: Madrazo, Pluchkin, Herklotz and Taaramäe.
As Aferwerki and Debesay are about to finish their job, Vesely and Van Avermaet stick to Van Heerden's wheel as Blythe launches behind them.
Vesely himself goes for it under the flamme rouge and Debesay isn't slowing down - he's got himself a good gap, can he hold it after 2km already in the wind?
Bellis, Alaphilippe and Ringheim come through into the battle for the top spots with 600m to go. Vesely has almost caught the Eritrean up ahead as Van Avermaet can't quite match the Czech rider's pace. Meanwhile Herklotz has accelerated very well and is amongst the battle for the podium!
Heartbreak for Debesay and Vesley reaches the front with just 300m to go. GVA should secure 2nd but can he stop the Moser sprinter?
Nope! A textbook isolated sprinter win from Daniel Vesely to fend off the Evonik man! Alaphilippe holds off Bellis and Herklotz for the final podium spot. The Moser man will also claim the white jersey for tomorrow, whilst Herklotz already looking attentive as one of the top three contenders.
A very strong Debesay finished 6th ahead of Bibby, a fading Ringheim, an attentive Taaramäe and a fast but badly positioned Van Der Velde.
