Rojas back at the fore
16 June 2014

Tour de Suisse (st. 3)

Spaniard 6th at uphill finish on stage three in Switzerland; no gaps within favourites lead Ion Izagirre into 7th GC

Stage three of the Tour de Suisse, one of the longest in this year’s course with 203km between Sarnen and Heiden, was covered at classic pace after Orica threw down the early, stable move by Martin Kohler (BMC) and Steven Kruijswijk (BEL), causing plenty of attacks with short gaps forming in the last 60k. The Movistar Team, always with Ion Izagirre well protected, reached the final slope (3.4km at 6% gradient) with four of the Blues (the Basque, together with Capecchi, Moreno and José Joaquín Rojas) within the fourty reaching the sprint together.

Rojas profited from a finale suiting him and got back to top places -6th, with Sagan (CAN) outsprinting the field- after his success in Castilla y León, while the lack of attacks within the GC favourites kept Ion into the overall top-ten (10th) of a race which Tony Martin (OPQ) still leads. A better chance for the sprinters should come tomorrow in Ossingen, with only two Cat-4 climbs in the 160km stage four.