‘Special’ day for Williams as late sprint seals first stage win

WELSHMAN Stephen Williams claimed his maiden WorldTour stage win as he sprinted to victory on the opening day of the Tour de Suisse.

The 177-kilometre stage, starting and finishing in Kusnacht, involved four 45km laps featuring the climbs of Pfannenstiel and Kusnachter, but it all came down to the last 400 metres.

Williams, a 26-year-old from Aberystwyth whose previous best finish for the Bahrain-Victorious team so far this year was 77th in the Tour of Romandie, beat Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal) in a race to the line.

With seven more days to go Williams leads the general classification into the 199km second stage between Kusnacht and Aesch.

“It’s my first big race back since Romandie and a good month of training,” Williams, who underwent knee surgery in 2020, told reporters after his win.

“To win the first stage with a group like that was really special.”

■ ELISA Longo Borghini claimed the Women’s Tour title by one second following a thrilling sprint finish in Oxford.

Grace Brown had gone into Saturday’s final stage as the leader by three seconds, but Italian Trek-Segafredo rider Borghini’s sprint for the line saw her cross in third and earn a four-second time bonus over her Australian rival.

DSM’s Lorena Wiebes won the stage to claim her third victory of the week.

“We decided to go for the intermediate sprint and I was fourth so I was like, ‘Okay, that’s the second place and that’s it,” Borghini said.

“But then all my team-mates kept my morale up, and said we try at the finish and we’ll do the lead-out for you.

“I was really doubting, but when you see such a team that is motivated and they are really believing in you, just want to give them back everything.”

“It’s only the third tour I have won – this one is up there as one that ranks high.”

The top British rider was CAMS-Baso’s Becky Storrie, who finished 15th overall.