Narváez claims dramatic Suisse win as break defies peloton at the last

Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse, outsprinting breakaway companion Xandro Meurisse (Pinarello Q36.5) after a breathless finale in Bad Ragaz.

After a rugged start to the stage, Narváez and Meurisse had escaped with over 100km to go, building a maximum advantage of 4:30 over the peloton, and they managed their lead smartly on the flat and rain-soaked run-in to the finish. 

The leaders still held a lead of 40 seconds over the peloton with 5km remaining, and they continued to combine well until deep into the final kilometre, while NSN gave desperate chase at the head of the peloton. 

The bunch drew closer in the final kilometre, but they weren’t able to catch the leaders, with Narváez’s speed carrying him to an emphatic victory after Meurisse had led out the sprint. 

The bunch was closing rapidly, and Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) took third in the same time as Narváez, while Merijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) finished in fourth ahead of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Narváez enjoyed a sparkling run on last month’s Giro d’Italia, notching up a remarkable hat-trick of stage victories, and he carried that form with him to Switzerland. He looked smooth throughout the day, and he dealt comfortably with Meurisse in the sprint. 

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) finished safely in the peloton to remain the overall leader, 2:50 clear of Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and 3:07 up on Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek).

With a time trial and a mammoth mountain stage to come, the third day of the Tour de Suisse was likely the last chance for a break to go the distance and there was a suitably brisk start to proceedings, with a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks ahead of the first climb, the category 1 Wildhaus, where Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step) led over the summit.

The key move took shape over the other side, when Narváez and Meurisse escaped with 109km to go, initially in the company of Michal Kwiatkowski (Netcompany-Ineos). The Pole would be dropped ahead of the following ascent, the Schwägalp Passhöhe.

By the top, Narváez and Meurisse had 1:50 in hand on a chasing group composed of Kwiatkowski, Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Ewen Costiou (Groupama-FDJ United), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal Quick-Step), Simon Dalby (Uno-X Mobility) and Marco Brenner (Tudor).

Narváez and Meurisse combined smoothly on the undulations that followed the day’s main climbs, opening their advantage to a maximum of 4:30 over the peloton and more than three minutes on the chasing group.

With 50km to go, they had 3:20 in hand on the chasers, who would be absorbed by the peloton shortly afterwards, just as the heavens opened over the race amid an electrical storm.

The uptick in pace in the peloton saw some splits briefly emerge, but the race leader Pogačar and his UAE team were always well placed as the intensity ratcheted upwards. Visma were now taking a controlling interest in the service of Matthew Brennan, with EF Education-EasyPost, NSN and Jayco-AlUla later joining the chase.  

Narváez and Meurisse stuck gamely to their task out in front, however, but their lead dropped to 1:30 inside the final 20km, with the balance seeming to tilt in favour of the peloton.