Arnaud De Lie looked for all the world like he was about to power towards the victory on stage 2 bunch sprint finish of the 2024 Tour de Suisse. Sadly for the Belgian however, an badly timed stroke of bad luck denied him that opportunity.
In the battle for the line, Bryan Coquard opened things up and although De Lie was perfectly positioned in the slipstream of the Frenchman's back wheel, an untimely mechanical saw the Cofidis sprinter fire his way to the win ahead of Michael Matthews, with Lotto Dstny's De Lie visibly frustrated as he thumped his handlebars crossing the line in 3rd.
“My chain flew off, so I'm third. Without bad luck I would have competed for the win," fumed the 22-year-old Belgian in his post-stage interview with Het Nieuwsblad afterwards. “It was a very tough final. It is what it is."
To make matter worse for De Lie, this stage was more than likely his only chance at victory at the 2024 Tour de Suisse, with only mountains and hills to come over the next few days. “Normally, tomorrow's stage is too tough. From now on I will mainly train for the Tour de France and the Belgian championship," he concludes glumly.
2024 Tour de Suisse stage 2 results:
| 1 | COQUARD Bryan | Cofidis | 60 | 04:06:39 |
| 2 | MATTHEWS Michael | Team Jayco-AlUla | 40 | + 00 |
| 3 | DE LIE Arnaud | Lotto Dstny | 30 | + 00 |
| 4 | RIVERA Brandon | INEOS Grenadiers | 25 | + 00 |
| 5 | COSTA Rui | EF Education-EasyPost | 20 | + 00 |
| 6 | LAURANCE Axel | Alpecin-Deceuninck | 15 | + 00 |
| 7 | PIDCOCK Tom | INEOS Grenadiers | 10 | + 00 |
| 8 | ADRIÀ Roger | BORA-hansgrohe | 8 | + 00 |
| 9 | BUSATTO Francesco | Intermarché-Wanty | 5 | + 00 |
| 10 | WILLIAMS Stephen | Israel-Premier Tech | 2 | + 00 |
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