Three-time road world champion Peter Sagan has won the third stage of the Tour de Suisse.
The Slovak from Team TotalEnergies narrowly prevailed in the final sprint after a highly demanding 177 km.
The German top driver Maximilian Schachmann crashed a few kilometers before the end and fell far back in the overall standings.
Previously, Schachmann had mastered the most difficult test of the Tour of Switzerland with many tricky climbs.
In the intermediate sprint, the 28-year-old from the German team Bora-hansgrohe even gained two seconds on overall leader Stephen Williams.
A little later, however, he was involved in a big fall in the field and ultimately rolled to the finish 53 seconds after Sagan.
From second place back to 17th place
Schachmann is 55 seconds behind Briton Williams (Bahrain-Victorious) in the overall standings, the Berliner fell from second to 17th place.
Sagan, on the other hand, celebrated his 18th day’s victory at the Tour de Suisse, further extending his record. The 32-year-old had not won a race in nine months.
The fourth of a total of eight stages leads on Wednesday over almost 191 km from Grenchen to Brunnen.
The mostly flat section comes up with a difficult category 2 climb near the end, which should offer climbing specialists a great opportunity for a stage win.