The second-year pro was our team’s highest-finisher Saturday afternoon.
Four weeks from his breakthrough ride at the Tour of California – where he won a stage (his first pro victory), took home the points jersey and finished on the overall podium – Kasper Asgreen returned to action. Part of a strong Deceuninck – Quick-Step team which lined up at the start of the 83rd Tour de Suisse, the 24-year-old Dane was one of the early starters and immediately found his rhythm, putting in a good effort and reaching the intermediate checkpoint with a solid time that gave him hopes of scoring a nice result.
Asgreen didn’t slow down on the second part of the route, demonstrating again his ITT capabilities on the 9.5km-long course in Langnau im Emmental and stopping the clock in 10:52, just fractions of a second from a top 3 finish. Provisional fourth at the finish, the Ronde van Vlaanderen runner-up was bumped down just one position by the end of the day, recording another impressive result in what is his first full pro season.
A hilly parcours, jammed with six classified climbs – the last of which will be tackled with twenty kilometers to go – is what the Tour de Suisse has in store for the peloton on Sunday, when it will give riders the chance to make some important gains in the general classification.
Photo credit: ©Heinz Zwicky/ Getty Images
Kasper Asgreen 