Tour de Suisse Stage 2: Movistar's Soler takes stage win and race lead

Juan Mauricio Soler of Movistar this afternoon won Stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse and took the overall lead after attacking as the race passed under the flamme rouge  on what proved to be a difficult final ascent to the finish at Crans-Montana.

The Colombian, winner of the mountains classification in the 2007 Tour de France, was in some pretty select company, with only Damiano Cunego of Lampre-ISD, who would finish second, defending champion Frank Schleck of Leopard Trek, who came in third, and Katusha’s Danilo di Luca left in contention for the stage win at that point.

Around seven kilometres from the end of today’s stage, Swiss rider Mathias Frank of BMC Racing, Steven Kruijswijk of Rabobank and Di Luca had managed to get clear of the chasing bunch.

However, they were brought back with two and a half kilometres to go as a group of 15 riders geared up to contest the finale, before the difficulty of the final climb resulted in that group being blown apart, leaving just four to fight for the stage win.

Tour de Suisse Stage 2 Result 
1  SOLER Juan Mauricio     MOVISTAR              04:23:20
2  CUNEGO Damiano          LAMPRE - ISD             +0:12
3  SCHLECK Frank           LEOPARD TREK             +0:12
4  DI LUCA Danilo          KATUSHA                  +0:16
5  MOLLEMA Bauke           RABOBANK                 +0:18
6  LEIPHEIMER Levi         RADIOSHACK               +0:34
7  VAN GARDEREN Tejay      HTC-HIGHROAD             +0:36
8  FRANK Mathias           BMC RACING               +0:39
9  CAPECCHI Eros           LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE      +0:47
10 TEN DAM Laurens         RABOBANK                 +0:47
11 KRUIJSWIJK Steven       RABOBANK                 +0:47
12 FROOME Christopher      SKY PROCYCLING           +0:56
13 DE GREEF Francis        OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO       +1:13
14 FUGLSANG Jakob          LEOPARD TREK             +1:15
15 TSCHOPP Johann          BMC RACING               +1:15
16 SCHLECK Andy            LEOPARD TREK             +1:39
17 SALERNO Cristiano       LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE      +1:39
18 ROJAS GIL Jose          MOVISTAR                 +1:44
19 CARUSO Giampaolo        KATUSHA                  +1:45
20 MONFORT Maxime          LEOPARD TREK             +1:47
 Tour de Suisse General Classification after Stage 2 
1  SOLER Juan Mauricio     MOVISTAR              04:33:19
2  CUNEGO Damiano          LAMPRE - ISD             +0:16
3  MOLLEMA Bauke           RABOBANK                 +0:22
4  VAN GARDEREN Tejay      HTC-HIGHROAD             +0:27
5  SCHLECK Frank           LEOPARD TREK             +0:31
6  LEIPHEIMER Levi         RADIOSHACK               +0:38
7  DI LUCA Danilo          KATUSHA                  +0:39
8  FRANK Mathias           BMC RACING               +0:52
9  FROOME Christopher      SKY PROCYCLING           +1:02
10 CAPECCHI Eros           LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE      +1:05