Tour de Suisse: Peter Sagan surges to sprint victory on stage 3

Image 1 of 21Peter Sagan earns first win of 2022 on stage 3 (Image credit: Luca Bettini/SprintCyclingAgency)Image 2 of 21Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) launched his attack on the breakaway and opened a 40-second gap with under 25km to go (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 3 of 21Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) attacked to gain maximum points on final categorised climb (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 4 of 21Quinn Simmons of Trek – Segafredo in Red Mountain Jersey and Stefan Bissegger of EF Education – EasyPost compete in the breakaway just before the Swiss rider attacks (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 5 of 21 Stefan Bissegger of Switzerland (EF Education – EasyPost) attacks (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 6 of 21The breakaway of six riders (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 7 of 21Philippe Gilbert (Lotto Soudal) went into the break of the day with Joey Rosskopf (Human Powered Health) (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 8 of 21Yellow jersey on shoulders of Stevie Williams in peloton on stage 3 (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 9 of 21Sunshine made for another hot day at the Tour de Suisse (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 10 of 21The breakaway rides 176,9km stage 3 from Aesch to Grenchen (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 11 of 21Ineos Grenadiers in peloton on stage 3 from Aesch to Grenchen (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 12 of 21Manuele Boaro of Astana – Qazaqstan at front of breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 13 of 21Matthias Reutimann of Team Switzerland competes in the breakaway (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 14 of 21The breakaway had as much as three minutes on the peloton (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 15 of 21Peloton passing through Epauvillers Village (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 16 of 21Classification jersey leaders at the start of stage 3 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 17 of 21Lots of hydration needed on a hot day for stage 3 (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 18 of 21Tour de Suisse leader Stevie Williams at the start in Aesch (Image credit: Getty Images)Image 19 of 21Swiss rider Sébastien Reichenbach of Groupama-FDJ stays hydrated (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 20 of 21American Joey Rosskopf (Human Powered Health) in stars-and-stripes national champion’s jersey in breakaway (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)Image 21 of 21Clément Champoussin of AG2R Citroën Team tries to beat the heat (Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images) Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) landed his first victory of 2022 when he won stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse in Grenchen. The Slovakian, whose spring campaign was ruined by illness, delivered a powerful sprint to beat Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) to the line. Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) took fourth in the bunch finish ahead of Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates).

It was the 18th Tour de Suisse stage win of Sagan’s career, and his first victory of any description since last September. The three-time world champion will hope the triumph augurs well for the Tour de France, where he is seeking an eight victory in the points classification. Stevie Williams (Bahrain Victorious) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey of race leader.

Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) had temporarily cut his overall lead to two seconds after slipping away with Geraint Thomas (Ineos) to pick up bonus seconds in the final intermediate sprint, but the German champion suffered a setback when he was caught up in a crash with 4km to go. The hilly run through the Jura was animated by a six-man break featuring Philippe Gilbert (Lotto-Soudal), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Joseph Rosskopf (Human Powered Health), Manuele Boaro (Astana) and Mathias Reutimann (Swiss National Team), who forged clear ahead of the first of the day’s seven climbs. Simmons availed of his time off the front to buttress his lead in the king of the mountains competition, but Gilbert’s presence meant that the escapees were kept on a tight leash.

Bissegger was the final survivor from the move, but he was swept up with 11. 5km to go as TotalEnergies and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert combined to tee up the sprint. More to follow… Results powered by First Cycling.