Vincenzo Albanese sprints to victory on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse

Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost) won stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse with a strong and well-timed sprint into Schwarzse. Fabio Christen (Q36.5) finished 2nd, and Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) finished 3rd in what was a long-range uphill sprint.

Race leader Romain Grégoire finished comfortably within the bunch, successfully defending his yellow jersey with plenty more tough stages to come. This stage success marked the third victory of Albanese’s career and the first WorldTour-level win.

Despite the presence of nearly 2,500 metres of elevation gain, this stage felt destined to end in a bunch sprint quite a long way from the finish. 

The early breakaway consisted of three riders, with Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty), and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) establishing a lead over the peloton.

One notable rider who was distanced early from the peloton, who would have posed a threat in the finish, was Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).

With 2.5 kilometres remaining, the talented Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who hit the ground on the opening stage, launched a brave attack. Behind, it was initially EF Education-EasyPost who were left to chase, but Christen would eventually be caught inside the final kilometre as the finish line drew closer.

Quinn Simmons was the first to launch in the sprint before Albanese was able to sprint past the American champion to take the victory ahead of Christen and Askey.

Speaking after the finish, Albanese said: “I felt good from the start. My role today was to lead out [Madis] Mihkels, but in the last kilometres, [Quinn] Simmons attacked, and I followed the other guys. I saw 200 metres to the finish line and I went full gas until the line.”

Grégoire remains as race leader of the Tour de Suisse with a margin of 25 seconds ahead of Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), and 27 seconds ahead of Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike) in third.