A seven rider break attacked just 8km into a 192.7km Tour de Suisse Stage 5 on Wednesday, and the composition of the break consisted of riders who were of little threat to the GC.
Vladimir Isaychev (Katusha Team), Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale), Salvatore Puccio (Sky ProCycling), Sestien Minard (Ag2R - La Mondiale), Karsten Kroon (Team Saxo Bank), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Klass Lodewyck (BMC Racing Team) were the riders, with Puccio being the closest threat in the GC in 74th place (13'12"). As a result, the peloton felt no need to waste energy on the chase. The gap grew to more than 10 minutes at its largest, but rarely dipped below 8.5 minutes for the majority of the stage.
Lodewyck attempted to escape three times before succeeding with 19km to go, but was caught and dropped by Oss, who was then caught by the rest of the break. in the final 10km, the break continued to attack each other without succeeding.
In the final few kilometers, Minard looked back and attacked, with Oss and Perez following. It looked like the race might come down to those three with less than a kilometer to go, but the other three caught them and Isaychev won the six man sprint. Perez was 2nd, Puccio 3rd.
Tom Boonen attempted to get into a break earlier in the race, but the break did not succeed. Levi Leipheimer was the team's top finisher, but crossed the line at the same time as most of his teammates.