The steep climbs of the Tour de Suisse started on stage 2. Mike Woods and Julian Alaphilippe traded attacks on the last climb to drop their rivals especially Mathieu van der Poel - but it wasn't enough...
"Unfortunately that climb was not long enough to distance him. I'm pretty pleased with how I felt today, definitely a step in the right direction. It would have been nice to have been able to get some separation on some of the stronger finishers, like Cortina and van der Poel, but the climb was a bit too short.
I've got many more days to come and many more opportunities to make some inroads in the GC and even go after that stage win, so I'm really looking forward to the bigger mountains.
It was quite hectic with the wet conditions. Very technical on the descents and very tricky going into that final climb. But, I managed to do a good job of getting myself into the right position. On the final climb, Alaphilippe clearly showed he was motivated, Carapaz also showed he was strong, same with Schachmann, but I felt like I'm on the same level as those three riders and I feel like I'll even go better once we hit the longer climbs."
-Mike Woods
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