Vincenzo Albanese Wins Stage 2 of Tour de Suisse

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Vincenzo Albanese Wins Stage 2 of Tour de Suisse

Vincenzo Albanese has won stage 2 of Tour de Suisse 2025

The 2025 Tour de Suisse continued Monday with stage 2 – a 177-kilometer stage in flat terrain and rolling hills on a route from Aarau to Schwarzsee. The route profile included one Category 2 climb and two Category 3 climbs in the final third of the stage. 

The total route of this year’s Tour de Suisse was unfortunately somewhat disappointing and the lack of sufficiently challenging and accumulating mountain terrain in this year’s race had caused most of the significant favorites for this year’s Tour de France to opt for last week’s Criterium du Dauphine.

Star riders such as Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), and Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) were missing from the start list of this year’s Tour of Switzerland, so the race and its spectators would have to do with riders such as Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), and Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphilippe.

Stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de Suisse started under somewhat sunny skies in Aarau, and it did not take long before three breakaway optimists launched a brave attack from the peloton.  The trio featured Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jonas Rutsch (Intermarche-Wanty), and Mauro Schmid of Team Jayco-Alula. The two Swiss riders joined forces with one German and the trio had formed a lead of approximately one minute after ten kilometers of racing.

Riders from Team Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe moved to the front of the main peloton to control the pace. The breakaway trio had managed to increase its lead to more than two minutes after twenty kilometers in the saddle.

Though Rutsch, Schmid and Dillier were eager to perform well on the roads of Switzerland, their lead over the main peloton had been reduced to 01:25 minutes with 115 kilometers left of the stage.

The front trio still maintained an advantage of 01:30 minutes over the chasing peloton when 80 kilometers remained. The riders were approaching the most mountainous and hilly part of the stage.

Silvan Dillier got caught by the chasing peloton with fifty kilometers left. Jonas Rutsch now formed the reconstructed front duo with Mauro Schmid. Their advantage was still approximately 01:30 minutes.

Jonas Rutsch was the next rider from the long breakaway of the day to get caught by the peloton. He was caught when seventeen kilometers remained.

EF Education-EasyPost had moved to the front of the main peloton and were delivering the hard chase work.

Fabio van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck) jumped to sole frontman Mauro Schmid, but the front duo got caught when thirteen kilometers remained. With all riders back in the peloton, it appeared the stage would be decided in a mass sprint.

Riders from Team EF Education-EasyPost were still leading the peloton and setting a fast pace to discourage any riders from attacking in the final seven kilometers.

Multiple teams joined the front of the peloton with five kilometers remaining as the sprinter teams were being set up for the fastest men in the peloton. It appeared most teams in the peloton were having plans for the stage finale.

Swiss rider Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates) launched a fast solo attack with 2.5 kilometers remaining, thereby hoping to take the sprinter teams by surprise. Impressive initiative from the rider who crashed heavily and got bruised and battered in yesterday’s stage.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek, and Tudor Pro Cycling Team riders accelerated and caught Christen. 

Newly crowned USA national champion Quinn Simmons then attacked, but it was Vincenzo Albanse who proved the strongest rider on the day. The Italian rider from EF Education-EasyPost won stage 2 of Tour de Suisse ahead of Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), while Lewis Askey completed the stage podium for Groupama-FDJ. Quinn Simmons finished fourth.

“It is my first win in the WorldTour and in this fantastic race,” stage winner Vincenzo Albanese told Roadcycling.com. “My team did a very good job for me in the final kilometers, and I am very, very happy. My role today was to lead-out my teammate Madis Mihkels, but Quinn Simmons attacked in the final meters, and I just followed him and then I won. This is my first WorldTour victory and we’ll see in the next days what happens,” Albanese explained.

Romain Gregoire remains general classification leader for Groupama-FDJ. Kevin Vauquelin is second for Arkea B & B Hotels, while Bart Lemmen is third for Team Visma-Lease a Bike. Julian Alaphilippe is fourth, while Ben O’Connor is fifth in the GC.

Tuesday’s stage 3 of Tour de Suisse 2025 will be a 195.6-kilometer ride from Aarau to Heiden. The stage will feature rolling hills terrain and include a Category 2 and a Category 3 climb in the stage finale. 

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de Suisse.

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