Refugee Leknessund gives Team DSM stage victory in Tour of Switzerland
Monday, June 13, 2022 at 5:07 PM
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Andreas Leknessund has won the second stage of the Tour de Suisse. The promising Norwegian from Team DSM was part of the early break in the stage to Aesch, broke away on the last climb of the day and then soloed to the stage victory. Stephen Williams remains leader.
After the surprising victory of Stephen Williams, the Tour of Switzerland continued with another serious stage. In addition to the start and finish place for the first stage, Küsnacht was also the departure point for the second stage to Aesch in the Jura. The route passed through uneven terrain over the ascent of Gempen (5.4 km at 4.6%), the Eichenberg (3.0 km at 7.4%) and the Chall pass (6.3 km at 6.3%) . From the top of the last pass it was still 13.8 kilometers in mainly descending line to the final finish. The victory seemed to be reserved for the puncheurs again today.
Strong leading group gets the space
After a nervous opening phase, eight riders managed to pull away and set up an early breakaway. These were Michael Schär (AG2R Citroën), Leonardo Basso (Astana Qazaqstan), Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM), Matthew Holmes (Lotto Soudal), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost), Joel Sutter (UAE Emirates), Mathieu Burgaudeau ( TotalEnergies) and Matteo Badilatti (Groupama-FDJ). Not much later we went from eight to ten leaders, as home riders Claudio Imhof and Simon Vitzthum on behalf of the Swiss selection still managed to close a gap of two minutes.
The early flight reaches the finish for the first time – photo: Cor Vos
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The lead of the leading group quickly increased to four minutes. In the peloton, the men of Bahrain Victorious, the team of leader Williams, decided to do the dirty work. Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl also decided to let a man (tempo beul Tim Declercq) join the chase. Still, there appeared to be little interest in the stage win, because the lead of the leading group kept getting bigger and with just over fifty kilometers on the clock, the difference was almost six minutes. The nine escapees, Vizthum had meanwhile been released, seemed to be getting a safe pass on their way to the finish.
Front group explodes on the Eichenberg
At one point BORA-hansgrohe and INEOS Grenadiers decided to intervene in the pursuit, in order to defuse the ‘danger-Leknessund’. The Norwegian from Team DSM was the best placed rider in the leading group – 31st at 1m01s from leader Williams – and was able to do a golden job with a view to a possible overall victory. The peloton sensed the danger in time and so there was a strong intermediate acceleration towards the foot of the Eichenberg. The front runners started this three kilometer climb with a lead of just under four minutes, at more than 7%.
On this difficult slope the leading group exploded, partly due to some accelerations from Holmes. Leknessund, Holmes, Burgaudeau, Rutsch, Badilatti and Schär turned out to have the strongest legs and were left at the front. These riders then moved on to the next and also the last climb of the day, the more than six kilometers long Challpas. The remaining escapees still had a view of the stage victory, although the lead had shrunk to about two minutes with twenty kilometers to go. In short, there was no time to dawdle and so Leknessund decided to throw the bat in the henhouse with eighteen kilometers from the finish.
Strong Leknessund solos to victory, Bettiol is wrong
The Norwegian, still only 23, proved to be the strongest climber not only on paper and managed to throw his fellow refugees overboard. Leknessund started a solo towards the finish and managed to get further and further out on the pursuers. In the peloton we saw a changing of the guard: Alpecin-Fenix took the lead ahead of his fast man Stefano Oldani. The Belgian formation did everything it could to bring things together for a group sprint. That was the plan, but the thinned out peloton didn’t come a bit closer to the strong Leknessund. The latter held onto his lead and started the descent of the Chall Pass first.
Leknessund came down unscathed and started the last ten, mainly flat, kilometers with a one-minute pass on Rutsch and Schär. The large group, still led by the men of Alpecin-Fenix, still followed almost a minute and a half. Only bad luck or a crash could keep Leknessund from winning, but luckily for the Norwegian he was spared bad luck in the last kilometers. The versatile driver recorded the biggest victory of his still young career in Aesch. For his employer Team DSM it is the fourth victory of the year.
Bettiol cheers, but for second place… – photo: Cor Vos
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More than half a minute after Leknessund’s glorious entry, Alberto Bettiol won the sprint for second place, although the Italian assumed he had crossed the line as the winner. Michael Matthews crossed the line in third. Stephen Williams finished neatly in the belly of the pack and can start the third stage of the Swiss round on Tuesday as leader, as Leknessund was a few seconds short for the double.
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