Tour de Suisse (st. 3)
Catalan climber from Movistar Team now 10th overall in Switzerland after torturous finish in Bern, as Matthews (SUN) wins the selected sprint. Mountains come out in force on Tuesday with first MTF in Villars-sur-Ollon
Youngster Marc Soler (Movistar Team) kept the pace of the biggest GC contenders in the Tour de Suisse at a difficult finish on Monday's stage three (159km from Menziken to Bern). The arrival, a carbon copy of stage 16 in the 2016 TDF, saw cobbles, turns and furious pacing from both sprinters' teams and top guns creating several gaps at the line.
Despite Soler coming just few meters behind the 20-strong group coming to the finish together -Michael Matthews (SUN) won the sprint-, the race jury awarded the Catalan allrounder with the same time as the riders preceeding him. Soler now sits 10th overall, 25" behind new race leader Matthews, leading the Blues' performances as both Víctor de la Parte (+45") and Carlos Betancur (+55") still remain between the fourty riders within a minute of the yellow jersey.
The Tour de Suisse will finish at the climb of Villars-sur-Ollon (HC) on Tuesday after another short stage (150km), also including the Col des Mosses (Cat-1). That will be the first of four consecutive days with big mountains on the route: the Simplonpass will be tackled far from the finish on Wednesday; the Albulapass will be a hard test before the downhill to La Punt on Thursday; and the infamous Tiefenbachferner (Sölden) will tear things apart on Friday.