Tour de Suisse 2024: Coquard wins chaotic sprint on stage 2 - Buchmann eliminated
Thomas Goldmann
· 10.06.2024
After a chaotic finale, Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) won stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse 2024. The French sprinter emerged victorious from a thinned-out peloton ahead of Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny). In the overall standings, Yves Lampaert (Soudal - Quick Step) defended first place without any problems.
Bryan Coquard with a curious balance sheet
Coquard benefited from the fact that De Lie, who was on his rear wheel, had a problem with his gears in the final sprint. The Frenchman took advantage of this and opened up a gap 200 metres before the finish, saving a small lead from the onrushing Matthews. Although this is the 32-year-old Coquard's 52nd professional victory, it is only his second success at World Tour level - he won a stage of the Tour Down Under in 2023. Coquard therefore also spoke of his greatest success to date.
"I've often come second. At the Tour de France, I once missed Marcel Kittel by 28 millimetres in Limoges. I'm very happy because I've just come here from the altitude training camp. And then to win here straight away is perfect."
Tour de Suisse 2024: Alberto Bettiol caught up shortly before the finish - Emanuel Buchmann eliminated
But the race could have gone differently. The climb to Regensberg in the finale had ensured that most of the sprinters had already been left behind. With Alberto Bettiol (EF Education EasyPost), one of the puncheurs almost capitalised on the chaos in the peloton. Georg Steinhauser's Italian team-mate was only caught again around two kilometres before the finish.
1500 metres before the finish, there was also a crash involving the German champion Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling Team). While Hayter and Voisard reached the finish, the Tour de Suisse 2024 is over for Emanuel Buchmann. As his team Bora-Hansgrohe announced on X (formerly Twitter) Buchmann is conscious and will undergo further examinations in hospital. Late Monday evening, Bora-Hansgrohe then wrote that Buchmann had broken his hip and collarbone.
Tour de Suisse 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 2
- Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) 4:06:39
- Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:00
- Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Dstny) +0:00
- Brandon Smith Rivera (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:00
- Rui Costa (EF Education EasyPost) +0:00
- Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:00
- Thomas Pidcock (Inoes Grenadiers) +0:00
- Roger Adria (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
- Francesco Busatto (Intermarche-Wanty) +0:00
- Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
The current standings in the overall standings
- Yves Lampaert (Soudal - Quick Step) 4:11:44
- Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:04
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team EMirates) +0:07
- Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) +0:07
- Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:07
- Samuel Watson (Groupama-FDJ) +0:09
- Alberto Bettiol (EF Education EasyPost) +0:09
- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +0:11
- Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:11
- Sören Kragh Andersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:11
How the 2nd stage of the Tour de Suisse 2024 went
With Kevin Colleoni (Intermarche-Wanty) and Fausto Masnada (Soudal - Quick Step) two riders did not start the 2nd stage. The breakaway group of the day formed immediately after the start. Five riders broke away: Gerben Kuypers (Intermarche-Wanty), Felix Stehli and Luca Jenni (both Swiss national team) as well as Antoine Debons and Roberto Carlos Gonzalez (both Team Corratec - Vini Fantini). While Gonzalez dropped out of the leading group early on and was swallowed up by the peloton 65 kilometres before the finish, his former four companions held on to the lead for a long time.
Jenni, the last remaining breakaway rider, was only swallowed up by the peloton on the climb to Regensberg around eleven kilometres before the finish. There, David de la Cruz (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) attacked first, but was quickly brought back because Alpecin-Deceuninck increased the pace massively on the climb in order to catch the very fast sprinters.
Alpecin-Deceuninck thins out the peloton
They succeeded at first. The Belgian team thinned out the peloton to less than 50 riders and one of their own, Sören Kragh Andersen, together with Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco-AlUla), went into the descent from Regensberg as the leading duo. However, these two attackers did not really get away. Around four kilometres before the finish, chaos and panic reigned in the peloton. The sprinter teams first had to reorganise themselves after the descent.
Alberto Bettiol (EF Education EasyPost) took advantage of this to launch a counter attack. The Italian was able to open up a lead of around five seconds before Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale and Lotto-Dstny followed up in earnest and put an end to his breakaway attempt. Almost at the same time as Bettiol caught up, Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) crashed, which ended in hospital for the Bora pro.
Arnaud De Lie with shifting problems
At the front, everything went according to plan for Lotto-Dstny. The Belgians delivered their sprinter Arnaud De Lie in third position behind Bryan Coquard after the last bend 300 metres before the finish. But De Lie had a problem with the gears at the decisive moment. Coquard pulled away and could no longer be caught.
