Michael Matthews -"we came here to win" sprints to third on stage two of the Tour de Suisse

Australian Michael Matthews sprinted to third place on stage two of the Tour de Suisse as the breakaway held off the chasing peloton into Aesch. The 31-year-old was left to fight for the runner-up spot as a lone rider Andreas Leknessund took the victory after an intense day of action in Switzerland.

Early in the stage, a breakaway with several riders emerged, with the peloton giving the escapees a maximum lead of more than six minutes. The stage seemed to be in the balance as the race approached the classified hills, with the break still retaining a substantial lead. With 12 kilometers left, Andreas Leknessund's late push on the final climb of the day shifted the stage back in favor of the attackers. On the flat run to the finish, the peloton raced hard, but it was too little, too late, with Matthews sprinting to third place from the trailing group, 38 seconds behind the solo winner.

“Obviously, we came here to win, but today wasn’t really a stage that we we’re 100% targeting, there’s some better stages for us here. But we had an opportunity in the final there, I managed to get over the climbs and the boys put me in a good position all day to fight over that final climb," he said.

The Australian then detailed the sprint in which he came second to Alberto Bettiol, who had accidentally celebrated his achievement: "Then coming into the sprint, we just fell short of one rider solo, but after yesterday, today was much better and for the team going into the next stages it looks really good," Matthews said. He is currently in 77th position in GC after stage 2 of Tour de Suisse.