Being surrounded by a team of sprinters, Tony Martin found himself on his own in the finale of today's mountainous second stage of the Tour de Suisse. To defend his leader's jersey, the German had to do a massive turn on the front himself and claimed that he owed it to his teammates not to give away the lead to one of the escapees that stayed away to the finish.

Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Tony Martin was able to stay near the front of the 182km Tour de Suisse Stage 2 on Sunday. Due to his efforts, he was able to successfully defend his leader's jersey after winning the prologue.

Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEDGE) won the stage out of the breakaway group. Philip Deignan (Team Sky) was 2nd, and Lawrence Warbasse (BMC Racing Team) was 3rd.

The German rider of OPQS finished 27th, 14" back with the peloton. He holds on to the GC leadership by 6" over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) and 13" over Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp).

OPQS looks next to high mountain, 202.9km Stage 3 on Monday. There are three Category 2 climbs, and the finale is uphill, though not categorized.

"Every day in the yellow jersey is a bonus," he wrote on his website. "That is why I took the initiative in today’s finale. Up until about five km before the finish, the lead group still had a one-minute advantage, although Cannondale was working for Sagan. That way I would have lost my jersey. So I turned on the gas and rode hard up to the 1 km marker, and the gap was noticeably reduced. And because of the peloton’s sprint, it was only 14 seconds in the end, which was enough for me.

"Of course I could have done nothing, given the jersey up and then in all likelihood win it back in the time trial. But I couldn’t do that to my teammates. The guys rode really strong today, worked hard for me, and I couldn’t just give in.

"The big attacks by the favorites never occurred, because it was too far from the climb to the finish. Tomorrow we will see more action. But I know the course very well as it is part of my usual training and so I have already ridden it many times. We will see what happens. At any rate I am looking forward to another day in yellow."