Juan Mauricio Soler wins second stage and also took overall lead in 2011 Tour de Suisse
Movistar team’s Juan Mauricio Soler won the second stage and also took the overall leader’s yellow jersey in 2011 Tour de Suisse on Sunday, June 12.
The race started in Airolo and ended in Crans-Montana. The 28-year-old Mauricio took a total of 4 hours, 23 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the distance of 149 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Soler told the media, "I could see that Schleck and Cunego were watching each other and so I took advantage of that, now I hope to keep the race for a few days."
Previously, Soler took overall second spot in Settimana Lombarda and grabbed the fourth place in the 4th stage of Giro d’ltalia in 2009.
Damiano Cunego of Lampre-ISD tried his best to cross the finish-line first with his own attacks, but he grabbed the runner's-up position with 12 seconds behind Soler. Frank Schleck of Leopard Trek was in the third spot.
A group of three riders made first their break-away, including, Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Movistar), Lloyd Mondory (AG2R La Mondiale) and Lazlo Bodrogi. The first two riders managed to get away from the peloton, but Lazlo Bodrogi failed and was caught by the
peloton.
With 80 kilometres to go, the trio managed to gain a lead of five-minutes over the peloton. Mondory won the first and second sprint of the stage.
In the final sprint, Jakob Fuglsang maintained his pace and caught Mathias Frank and Steven Kruijswijk in the final three kilometres. Cunego and Schleck attacked, but failed to catch Soler. However, the Movistar rider, Soler, crossed the finish-line ahead
of other cyclists.
Soler said, "I want to dedicate this win to Xavier, but also to my team who worked a lot for this to happen today."
Matti Breschel of Rabobank won the title of first King of Mountain (KOM) ahead of Heinrich and Mathias Frank.
Juan Mauricio also took the lead in overall standing with a timing of 4 hours, 33 minutes and 19 seconds. Damiano Cunego was the runner-up with 16 seconds behind Juan, while Bauke Mollema finished third with a difference of 22 seconds.
The next stage will start in Brig-Glis and end in Grindelwald. All the riders will cover the distance of 107.6 kilometres.
Tags: