World champion Peter Sagan broke out a new celebration as he won Wednesday’s fifth stage while Damiano Caruso maintained his overall lead at the Tour of Switzerland.
For Slovak Sagan, it was his 14th stage win at the race over the last seven years as he took victory in the 222km ride from Bex to Cevio ahead of Swiss Michael Albasini and Italy’s Matteo Trentin.
Sagan, 27, broke out into some arm waving resembling a hula dance as he crossed the finish line.
Italian Caruso maintained his 16-second lead over Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk with Domenico Pozzovivo of Italy third at 25sec.
It was a terrible day for last year’s champion Miguel Angel Lopez of Colombia, who was taken to hospital after crashing badly on a fast descent midway through the stage.
At that point there was a six-man breakaway that had eked out a lead of six minutes at one stage.
But its last two remnants, Ben King and Jesper Asselman, were caught with just 6km remaining.
Thursday’s 166.7km sixth stage from Locarno to La Punt has an uphill finish that should see the overall contenders do battle. – Agence France-Presse
