page_title: 2015 Tour de Suisse
section_title: Stage 3
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Tour de Suisse / Stages / Stage 3
caption_attribution_description: English: From Gotthard pass to Airolo
context_page_description: The 2015 Tour de Suisse was the 79th edition of the Tour de Suisse stage race. It took place from 13 to 21 June and was the seventeenth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. It started in Risch-Rotkreuz and finished in Bern. The race was composed of nine stages including two time trials, a short one on the first day and a long one on the last day. The event covered 1,258 km and visited Liechtenstein and Austria on its fifth stage. There was only one mountaintop finish, on the aforementioned stage five.
  The winner of the general classification was Slovenian Simon Špilak of Team Katusha, who won the race by a margin of only five seconds from Great Britain's Geraint Thomas. The ultimate selection was made on the last day's individual time trial. Tom Dumoulin of the Team Giant–Alpecin squad rounded up the podium. The latter won the two individual time trials, on the first and last stage.
  The mountains classification was awarded to Austria's Stefan Denifl, who featured in many breakaways to amass his points. The sprints classification was won by Slovakian Peter Sagan who also was the victor of two stages.
context_section_description: 15 June 2015 — Quinto to Olivone 117.3 km (72.9 mi)
  This was the new version of the stage as the original route was closed due to a landslide. The stage immediately started with the 1,087 m (3,566.3 ft)-high ascent of the Hors Category Gotthard Pass, which summit was 18.8 km (11.7 mi) in. Then came a long false flat until a Category 2 climb, the 5 km (3.1 mi)-long Zona Cumiasca. It was immediately followed by a Category 3 named ascent Via Cantonale, which summited 6 km (3.7 mi) from the finish. The climb was 3.2 km (2.0 mi).
  The race got on its way under cloudy but dry conditions. The Tour de Suisse was featuring the Gotthard Pass for the 34th time in its history, and a break formed along its early slopes, which featured cobbles. The two attackers were Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling) and Marco Marcato (Wanty-Groupe Gobert). The pair had a lead of 2' 30" on the main field as Branislau Samoilau (CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice) was chasing them. Denifl got to the top of the climb first to rake in twenty points. By the top of the pass, snow was covering the sides of the road and the field was 3' 20" back. The riders put gilets on before the descent, which lasted almost 40 km (24.9 mi). Samoileau succeeded in joining the escape during the downhill.
  The competitors replenished their food stock at the feed zone situated shortly after the downhill section. The main field started accelerating, with the team of the leader Tom Dumoulin Giant-Alpecin doing most of the work at the front. Realizing this breakaway was gaining ground, Tinkoff-Saxo came to the fore to help, resulting in the gap going down gradually. There was 30 km (18.6 mi) to cover as the gap was hovering around 4' 30".
  At the foot of the Zona Cumiasca climb, with 19 km (11.8 mi) remaining, the gap had shrunk significantly. The peloton formed sprint trains to better position their leaders for the ascent. Marcato was soon dropped from the breakaway and Denifl won the mountain points. At that point, Denifl and Samoileau had only a thirty seconds gap over the depleting field. The catch was effectuated with 8.7 km (5.4 mi) to race. Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE) attacked, soon followed by Jan Bakelants (Ag2r-La Mondiale). With the two escapees enjoying only a ten-second advantage, Sergio Henao (Team Sky) accelerated and passed them. The trio was ultimately reeled in. Rafał Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) was working at the front of the small leading group to bring back the attackers to give his team leader Peter Sagan a chance at victory. In the last few kilometers, Sagan took over from Majka himself. He followed Daniel Moreno (Team Katusha), who had chased down Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE), passing him to take victory.
caption: The third stage began with the Hors Category Gotthard Pass climb.
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