Astana's Fuglsang 2nd in Tour de Suisse final classification

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Jakob Fuglsang hit the general classification podium at the Tour de Suisse after a stunning performance in the final individual time trial in Bellinzona. The leader of the Astana Pro Team finished 8th in the time trial, losing just 38 seconds to the stage 9 winner Stefan Küng and becoming the best rider among all GC contenders. This result was more than enough to move Fuglsang onto the final podium of the Tour de Suisse, Kazinform has learnt from the club's official website.

"This is a great result, which brings me a lot of confidence ahead of the Tour de France. I won the Critérium du Dauphiné last year and now I am second at the Tour de Suisse. This says me I am on a right way. In today's TT I just gave my all and everything went perfect. I worked a lot on my TT skills this year and now this work pays off. I am really happy to be on the podium. That's true, we did not have really good team time trial at the beginning of the race, but stage by stage we could improve as a team and the final podium is a nice award for all of us. In the next days I will do a recon of a few stages of the Tour and later will continue my preparation," said Jakob Fuglsang.

The final individual time trial of 34,1 km in Bellinzona became a decisive moment for the whole race. Jakob Fuglsang did a solid race and was able to move from 6th to 2nd in the general classification. He won time to all of his main rivals, but the Australian Richie Porte could hold his advantage of 1 minute 2 seconds and became the final winner of the Tour de Suisse 2018. The race podium was completed by the Colombian Nairo Quintana (+1.12).

Also, Tanel Kangert did a very strong race and finished 11th in the general classification (+3.07).

Astana Pro Team won the final team's classification of the Tour de Suisse.

"We can be satisfied with our result here at the Tour de Suisse. We had a good plan for this race and even after not best TTT, we knew we could fight for a podium. Stage by stage we worked for it, supporting our leader Jakob Fuglsang; in the same time all guys looked strong and concentrated. Indeed, the final podium was a goal for us and, finally, we have reached it. As a nice bonus, we won the team's classification. Besides Jakob, today we had Tanel Kangert and Dmitriy Gruzdev motivated to do a strong TT and to help the team to hold our lead. The team's win says we are ready for the next big goal - the Tour de France," added sports manager Dmitriy Fofonov.