Another mountain stage awaited the riders in the Tour of Switzerland today. Styby did really well again and managed to stick with the favorites for a long time, but the pace was a bit too fast for him on the final climb.
At just 107 km, the third stage was a short one. “But that didn't make it less difficult,” Styby said from Grindelwald. “We had to climb 3000 meters in that distance. I tried to get in a break early in the stage, but that didn't work.”
Styby then tried to stay with the favorites for as long as possible. “And it went well in the beginning. There was a nice tempo on the first category one climb. It was only five degrees at the top, really foggy and it was raining. Nothing to laugh about.”
The descent was very fast. “I reached a speed of over 100 kph. It was extremely fast. The pace slowed a good bit at the base of the final climb a bit further up. I stayed with the best going up, but I had to let them go on the steepest part of the climb. I felt better than I did yesterday and that's important. Hopefully I'll make even more progress over the next six days.”
Peter Sagan was the winner of the stage, ahead of Damiano Cunego, who takes over the leader's jersey from Juan Mauricio Soler. Styby, who finished the day in 29th, less than five minutes back, is now 31st in the general classification, 13 minutes behind the Italian.