Mathieu Van der Poel wins again to take Tour of Suisse lead after beating Christophe Laporte and Julian Alaphilippe

ByJames Walker-Roberts

Updated 08/06/2021 at 16:56 GMT

Another day, another victory for Alpecin-Fenix rider Mathieu van der Poel. The 26-year-old took the honours on Stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse as he produced a strong finish to beat Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and secure the overall lead of the eight-stage race.

Mathieu van der Poel took the race lead at the Tour de Suisse after securing back-to-back stage wins.

The Alpecin-Fenix rider followed up his Stage 2 victory by beating Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in the uphill finale at Pfaffnau.

Van der Poel now leads the race by one second from Alaphilippe while previous leader Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) sits in third at four seconds behind.

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“I had a good day again and I wanted to make the race hard. Like yesterday on the final climb but it was still around 30-40 guys,” said Van der Poel.

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“I saw the sprint the first time around the finish and I saw that it suited me quite well so I went for that.”

A breakaway move from Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar) saw him lead coming into the final kilometre, but he was caught by the determined chasing pack.

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Mauri Vansevenant looked to lead out the sprint for team-mate Alaphilippe but it was Van der Poel who found the strongest finish and he even had time to sit up and enjoy his victory.

Stage 4 of the eight-stage race sees riders tackle a 171km route with a climb up Saanenmoser to the finish.

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