Tour de Suisse: Sagan sprints to second victory

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan sprinted to his second win of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday’s stage six, as Mark Cavendish’s charge was scuppered by a crash involving his teammates.

Cavendish appeared to be in a good position heading into the closing stages of the 193km route from Wil to Bienne.

But his chances of victory were dealt a major blow when his Etixx - Quick-Step colleague Zdenek Stybar crashed out in difficult conditions.

Without a full leadout, Cavendish was forced to settle for sixth place behind the Slovak Sagan, who made his final push on a tight final right turn to seal his 11th stage win in Tour de Suisse history.

Team Sky's Geraint Thomas remains in second place in the general classification after finishing 11th.

Thomas now lies 42 seconds off overall leader Thibaut Pinot, who had no problems defending his yellow jersey the day after clinching it with a solo victory in a grueling stage five. 

Lotto-Soudal's Jurden Roelandts and Katusha's Alexander Kristoff finished second and third respectively. 

Stage Six result:

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo 4hours 34mins 43secs
2 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Soudal ST
3 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha ST
4 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team ST
5 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo ST
6 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Etixx - Quick-Step +2s
7 Tom Van Asbroeck (Bel) Team LottoNL-Jumbo ST
8 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team ST
9 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team ST
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team ST

Overall standings:
1 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr 22 hours 16mins 51secs
2 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky +42s
3 Simon Spilak (Slo) Team Katusha +50s
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale +55s
5 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team +1min 7s
6 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team +1min 22s
7 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin +1min 32s
8 Steve Morabito (Swi) FDJ.fr +2mins 29s
9 Sebastien Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling +2mins 43s
10 Sergio Luis Henao (Col) Team Sky +2mins 46s