Andreas Leknessund (DSM), a young Norwegian, took the second stage in the Tour de Suisse on Monday in Aesch near Basel.
After this hilly 198-kilometer stage, Briton Stephen Williams (Bahrain), retained the leader’s jersey.
Leknessund, a survivor of a breakaway, launched over 170 km from the finish. He was 38 seconds ahead of the peloton, which was regulated by Alberto Bettiol in Italy. Bettiol raised his arms at the line, believing that he had won.
On the 18th kilometer of the final climb, the Norwegian left his friends (Burgaudeau and Holmes, Rutsch and Schar). “I suffered the last kilometers,” the winner of the day said upon his arrival. He moved up to 4th in the general classification, only 7 seconds away from the yellow jersey.
The final saw the Alpecin and Intermarche teams lead the peloton. However, the riders failed to catch up to the Norwegian time trial champion, a 23 year-old rider who won 2020’s European U23 title (ahead of Stefan Bissegger).
Leknessund was the fourth win for the DSM team, and its second victory at WorldTour level following the Giro stage win by Alberto Dainese.
The Norwegian, who had just completed the UnoX training, stated that he was able to win a stage.
Many sprinters and punchers were killed by the acceleration of the peloton in order to catch up to the breakaways who had a count of more than six minutes ahead. The French Benoit Connefroy and Peter Sagan from Slovakia finished six minutes ahead of Leknessund.
