Tour de Suisse stage 2: Bryan Coquard wins sprint as Arnaud De Lie drops his chain

Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) sprinted to victory on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse, beating a flailing Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny) after a chaotic and dramatic run-in to Regensdorf.

On a hilly parcours, the peloton was cut down on the late climb of the Regensberg, and while things came back together for a sizeable bunch sprint, it was a messy run-in with attacks flying ahead of disorganised lead-out units.

Lotto Dstny were pivotal in dragging things back in the end and looked to have set up De Lie perfectly, only for the Belgian’s chain to slip as he opened his sprint.

Coquard had already bagged the wheel of De Lie’s lead-out man and he was able to soar clear as De Lie fumbled to reattach his chain – only able to truly open the taps when it was too late.

By that point, he’d been caught and passed by Jayco-AlUla’s Michael Matthews, although he managed to re-overhaul Brandon Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) to take the final spot on the day's podium.

Coquard has won more than 50 races but described this, his second at WorldTour level following a stage of the Tour Down Under last year, as the biggest of his career.

“A lot of times I finished second, in the Tour de France for example, by 28mm with Marcel Kittel in Limoges,” he said, referring to his heartbreak on stage 4 of the 2016 Tour.

“I’m a good sprinter but against the big guys it’s more difficult for me and today was a perfect opportunity. It was a difficult stage with a hard climb just before the final. We arrived with a little bunch and I did a perfect final with a perfect sprint.”

Stage 1 winner Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step) finished safely in the bunch to retain the leader’s yellow jersey. Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) was dropped on the late climb, leaving Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), who was caught behind a late crash and denied the opportunity to sprint, to move up to second overall at four seconds. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) similarly jumps one place to third at seven seconds, while Matthews’ six bonus seconds propel him 12 places into fifth.

The main general classification favourites finished safely in the peloton of 82 riders, while several sprinters were dropped either on the late climb or the preceding hills, including Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).

How it unfolded

After the stage 1 time trial, the opening road stage of the 2024 Tour de Suisse took the riders 177.3km from Vaduz to Regensdorf, with two category 2 climbs in the opening half, followed by a trio of uncategorised climbs in the final 50km and then the key ascent of the cat-3 Regensberg, which topped out 10km from home.

There were two non-starters in Fausto Masnada (Soudal Quick-Step) and Kevin Colleoni (Intermarché-Wanty), and five riders in the day’s breakaway in Gerben Kuypers (Intermarché-Wanty), the Corratec-Selle Italia duo of Antoine Debons and Roberto González, and the Swiss national team duo of Félix Stehli and Luca Jenni.

The quintet slipped away quickly and built a lead of four minutes over a peloton controlled by race leader Lampaert’s Quick-Step teammates.

On the first climb, the Kerenzerberg, Ineos Grenadiers took over to set a harder tempo in the interests of Hayter, while Kuypers helped himself to the maximum collection of mountains points at the top. On the second climb, of Ricken, with just over 100km to go, González was dropped from the front but the rest of them were gaining on the peloton, extending the gap to five minutes as Jenni this time beat Kuypers to the points.

Quick-Step and Alpecin-Deceuninck continued to combine on the rolling terrain, but the pace only started to intensify ahead of the trio of uncategorised climbs. The second of them featured an intermediate sprint with 36km to go, where Jenni took maximum points but the break had seen their lead cut to 2:30.

Next up were the two Tissot sprints, and Stehli took the maximum three bonus seconds as he attacked off the front of the break. Behind, the writing was already on the wall for a number of sprinters, with Mark Cavendish among those dropped on the third short climb.

Much of the peloton reformed for the Regensberg (3.5km at 5.7%), where Jenni attacked and was the last survivor from the break, but was swallowed up just shy of the summit. At that point, Alpecin-Deceuninck were setting a strong pace through Søren Kragh Andersen and Axel Laurance. The bunch was fragmented as it took on the descent, and it was just stitching back together when Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) took a flyer with 5km to go.

He was chased by Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), and Ion Izaguirre (Cofidis), but they were shut down when Lotto Dstny got themselves together to set up a sprint. Bettiol fared impressively but sat up with 1.3km to go, paving the way for a sprint.

After a turn from Quick-Step, Lotto Dstny took the reins for the left-hand bend with 500 metres to go and while De Lie was separated from the wheel of his lead-out, he went through the final right-handers with 300m to go in the wheel of Coquard. When the Frenchman opened his sprint, De Lie still seemed well poised, but disaster struck as his chain was unshipped and he was unable to put any power through the drivetrain.

Coquard wasn’t looking back, and sailed clear to take what he felt was the biggest win of his career to date.

For all the latest developments from the world of professional cycling, make sure to head over to our dedicated racing news section of the GCN website.