Columbia-Highroad’s Bernhard Eisel stormed to a close but convincing bunch sprint victory in the Tour de Suisse’s stage two on Sunday.  After Columbia-Highroad teammate Tony Martin had attacked on a first category climb, moving into the lead of the King of the Mountains classification, Eisel seized his chance in the 100-rider bunch sprint which finally decided the 150-kilometre stage.

The Columbia-HIghroad rider edged out Germany’s Gerald Ciolek and Spain’s former triple World Champion Oscar Freire for his first victory since taking the Paris-Bourges one-day race in France last autumn.  “I went for a long sprint, found my own line and, above all, I didn’t look back until I crossed that finish line,” Eisel said afterwards.

“It was a very technical finish. Fortunately [teammate] George Hincapie gave me a really good leadout, so I was in a great position to go for it and go for the stage win.”

After Columbia-Highroad had worked hard to control the race in the closing kilometres, Eisel said he had had no choice but to give it everything in the sprint.  “Tony [Martin] had attacked, and at one point we thought he was going to win the stage.  But then after he had been pulled back, Columbia-Highroad set things up perfectly for a bunch sprint.  The only problem was that when I started sprinting, the line seemed like it was never going to arrive!  I was nervous about Ciolek and Freire, too.  They could have overtaken me right on the finish line.  Fortunately I just managed to hang on. But it was close!”

Eisel’s victory came on a day of exceptional all-round success for Columbia-Highroad.  In the Bira race in Spain, Judith Arndt fended off Germany’s Claudia Hausler to take both the stage win and the overall victory.  So thanks to Eisel and Arndt, Columbia-Highroad racked up no fewer than three first places in one day.