Swiss rider Michael Albasini was the highest placed ORICA-GreenEDGE rider in stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse finishing in 6th position, with Cameron Meyer coming in just behind him in 11th place. After both riders were part of a 19 strong lead group, they couldn’t quite make up the gap after a two-man breakaway of Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) and Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale) formed with around 15km to go.

Both ORICA-GreenEDGE riders worked hard in an aggressive race, but couldn’t quite bridge the gap between the group and the two leaders, with the second group containing Albasini eventually finishing 22 seconds behind the winner Lutsenko and Meyer finishing 40 seconds adrift.

“Today was an aggressive race from the start with lots of teams looking for the win,” said sport director Neil Stephens. “We laid everything on the line for a win and Michael and Cameron worked really hard in the bunch on what was a tricky circuit.

“We can’t be disappointed as we made no mistakes, and the guys rode as hard as they could. Michael didn’t get that much assistance from the bunch, maybe they were looking at him to take the lead, but he worked really hard which is all we can ask.

“This was one of the last chances for teams and riders to prove themselves before the Tour de France and there were attacks from the first kilometre. It was a touch aggressive race and we gave it all we’d got.”

Esteban Chaves remains in 13th position in the general classification, 3.12 off the leader Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr).

The final stage of the Tour de Suisse tomorrow is a time trial on the same course as today. The 38.7km course weaves around the Swiss capital Bern and will decide the winner of the Tour de Suisse.