Yves Lampaert hopes to stay in overall lead of Tour de Suisse until stage 4: "Tomorrow's stage is a bit more difficult, so it won't be easy"

Yves Lampaert will be able to wear the yellow leader's jersey for at least an extra day in the Tour de Suisse after a hilly stage from Vaduz to Regensdorf. After a day of hide and seek in the peloton, Lampaert was briefly lost contact with the bunch on the last climb with 10 kilometers to go, but luckily, together with other riders, he was able to bridge back just in time to keep his overall lead ahead of Ethan Hayter who moves to second after today's stage.

For Lampaert it was certainly not an easy work to keep up with the bunch on the fast-paced Regenberg (2.9km at 6.3%). "It was certainly not obvious," he says about retaining his yellow jersey, Het Nieuwsblad reports. "It went super fast on the final climb. I was dropped for a while, but during the descent I was able to return - together with Arnaud De Lie. That was my salvation."

The breakaway of outsiders enjoyed a nice gap to peloton for large part of the stage, but thanks to the work of Lampaert's teammates from Soudal - Quick-Step, the peloton was able to close the gap in time. "They did that with verve. It was a strong leading group, we really had to chase hard. Fortunately, Alpecin-Deceuninck also came to help, without them it would have been difficult."

So tomorrow Lampaert will get to ride in yellow again. "It's nice that other riders are also happy for me." Will he manage to hang onto the peloton on a punchy finish with three categorized climbs in last quarter of the stage? "Tomorrow's stage is a bit more difficult, so it won't be easy. But I'm going to do everything I can to wear that yellow for a little while longer." Although he realizes that it will not be easy. "Alberto Bettiol already stuck his nose to the wind today. But who knows, it might work out."