Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) used a combination of fast legs and exceptional technical skills to come out on top in today’s fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse. In a very tricky and dangerous finale, he stayed in a good position for the finals turns before powering ahead of Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to take the win while pre-race favourite Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) went down in a crash. Cavendish’s teammate Tony Martin avoided the carnage and defended his leader’s jersey.

Earlier this year Sacha Modolo won the final sprint stage of the Driedaagse van de Panne which is famously known for its very tricky corner close to the finish. Today he again underlined his strength in that kind of technical finales when he won the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse.

With two turns coming in quick succession inside the final 300m of the stage, the bunch sprint was as much about technical skills and positioning as it was about speed and in such circumstances Modolo and Peter Sagan excel. Hence, it was no surprise to see those two riders go head to head in the finale and as it was the case earlier this year in Belgium, Modolo took the win.

Like yesterday, it was Koen De Kort (Giant-Shimano) who dominated the finale as the Dutchman again made the perfect lead-out. Like yesterday, however, he had lost his sprinter John Degenkolb who found himself back in fourth position as they approached the penultimate corner, with Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Modolo riding in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Sagan showed his excellent skills in that turn by moving into second, squeezing Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) who tried to make a similar move, in the process. When De Kort faded, the Slovakian launched his sprint but he had the attentive Modolo on his wheel.

Going into the final corner, Modolo passed Sagan on the outside and showed that he was clearly the fastest of the pair. With apparent ease, he opened a big gap and crossed the line with time to spare to celebrate his win. Sagan held onto second while John Degenkolb was a distant third, with Kristoff rolling across the line in fourth.

Crashes were bound to happen in this kind of finale and it was Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) who hit the deck going out of the penultimate turn. Pre-race favourite Mark Cavendish rode straight into his former teammate and both hit the deck hard. TV images showed Cavendish roll across the line, apparently  unhurt, but he would never have won the sprint anyway as he went into the corner outside the top 10 positions.

Cavendish’s teammate Tony Martin rolled across the line within the bunch and safely defended his 6-second lead over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano). He takes his jersey into tomorrow’s sixth stage which is a very tricky affair with two climbs inside the final 30km. It could be a day for a breakaway or a day for strong sprinters like Sagan, Kristoff, Modolo and Degenkolb.

Another opportunity for the sprinters

After yesterday’s flat stage, the fifth leg of the Tour de Suisse was again expected to suit the fast finishers. The 183.6km from Ossingen to Büren an der Aare were almost completely flat and was split into two parts. First the riders rode from the start to the finishing city, covering three smaller climbs along the way, before ending the stage by doing a lap of a 29.8km finishing circuit that included a small category 4 ascent. It was no expected to challenge the sprinters though and a bunch kick was the expected outcome of the stage.

The riders left Ossingen under a cloudy sky but one rider who finished yesterday’s stage, was absent. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) has been suffering from a chest infection since the start of the race and after crashing in yesterday’s stage, he has decided to return to the UK to prepare for his national TT championships.

An early break

With everybody expecting this to be a classic sprint stage, there was no real interest in making it into the early break. Almost straight from the gun, Sander Armee (Lotto Belisol), Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty) and Jaroslaw Mayrcz (CCC) attacked and after 5km of racing they were already 45 seconds ahead. The peloton was content with the situation and allowed the gap to grow to a bit more than 3 minutes at the 16km mark.

However, the sprint teams didn’t want to let this opportunity slip away and they controlled the gap tightly. When Armee took maximum points at the top of the first climb, the escapees were only 3.21 ahead and when Veuchelen was fastest at the top of the second one, the gap was still only 4.35.

Iglinskiy abandons

Veuchelen was again the fastest on the third climb after 85km of racing at which point the gap reached its maximum of 4.55. In the feed zone, Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) left the race at a time when the advantage was brought down to 4.50.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step had been doing the early work with Martin Velits and Matteo Trentin and they now started to accelerate. With 56km to go, the advantage of the escapees was only 2.30 but until that point they had done all the work on their own.

Cannondale lend a hand

Cannondale now decided to lend them a hand and put Ted King on the front to help the OPQS duo. The trio kept the gap stable for some time but as the peloton entered the final 40km, things got very nervous and all teams moved to the front.

This caused the pace to go up and the gap was now melting away. Trentin and Velits disappeared from the front and instead Niki Terpstra and Tom Boonen took over for OPQS.

Trentin back to work

Veuchelen led the escapees across the line for the first time while Boonen was first from the peloton 1.25 later. Trentin had recovered from his efforts and as they hit the climb on the finishing circuit with 25km to go, the Italian was back on the front.

The gap had come down to 50 seconds but as Trentin didn’t go too fast on the ascent, it went back up to a minute. Armee led Veuchelen and Marycz across the line and quickly responded when Veuchelen made a small attack on the descent.

The break is caught

Trentin used his last bit of energy to bring the gap down to 20 seconds before Boonen again took over 15km from the line. Katusha decided to contribute and for a little while Gatis Smukulis swapped turns with Terpstra.

10km from the line the escapees were caught but as they had now turned into a headwind, the peloton slowed down, no team wanting to hit the front too early. To keep their GC riders safe, Garmin-Sharp took over with Tom Danielson and Johan Vansummeren until Ag2r hit the front with Patrick Gretsch.

Giant-Shimano rule in the finish

With 6km to go, Katusha was in a very good position when Smukulis and Vladimir Isaychev led a very strong block of riders from the team but they were soon passed by Tinkoff-Saxo, led by Matti Breschel. However, it was time to kick into action for OPQS and it was race leader Martin who strung things out with 4km to go.

The strongest team was Giant-Shimano and with 3km to go, they hit the front. For a brief moment, OPQS tried to pass them with Gert Steegmans leading the line but the Dutch team remained in control. They made use of short turns from Marco Haller and Fabio Sabatini but as the peloton passed the flamme rouge, they ruled the finish.

De Kort launched his lead-out just before the penultimate turn but like yesterday Degenkolb was not on his wheel. Sagan took the turn impressively well to move into second and from there the dramatic sprint unfolded.