Astana's Cort 5th in Tour de Suisse Stage 3

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Magnus Cort finished 5th at stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse. Astana Pro Team rider did a very good sprint, showing increasing form and taking a high place alongside other best sprinters of the race, Kazinform has learnt from the club's official website.

"Today it was much better than yesterday. Firstly, it was not so hot. Yeah, it was a raining day, but in general, the air temperature was much more comfortable. Also, I felt better on the climbs and I feel like I am improving day by day. The team did a great job for me during the whole day and especially on the climbs. In the final I've go a big support from Omar Fraile and even Jakob Fuglsang helped me a lot to get a good position for the sprint. I hope to be able to help him as well on the next stages. In the sprint I've missed some power since left a lot of energy on the last climb, but I am happy to be up there in front fighting for the stage victory. It was a good day," said Magnus Cort.

Stage 3 has started in Oberstammheim and ended on the streets of Gansingen after 182,8 km of racing. After the daily breakaway was caught inside the final 10 kilometers the peloton has exploded with a number of attacks, but nobody could get any advantage on the last climb of the day and later on the descent. So, a big group came together to Gansingen and once again everything was done in the sprint.

This time it was the Italian Sonny Colbrelli, who took the stage ahead of Fernando Gaviria and Peter Sagan. Magnus Cort was close with his 5th position. Jakob Fuglsang, Jesper Hansen and Tanel Kangert all finished in the main pack.

"We could be happy with this stage as we did it by the plan. Our first goal was to be presented in front of the group and to protect our leaders. So, we did it perfectly. Also, we wanted to try to sprint with Magnus Cort, he is still on the way to his best form, but today he showed a nice sprint and I am happy with his progress. We still have a whole racing week here in Switzerland and we are ready to do more in this race," said sports manager Dmitriy Fofonov.

The Suisse rider Stefan Küng still leads the general classification of the race. Tanel Kangert and Jakob Fuglsang are provisionally at 44th and 45th places, respectively.

Stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse will be held tomorrow: 189,2 km from Gansingen to Gstaad.