Francesco Casagrande (Fassa Bortolo), snatched victory in the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland from the hands Phonak’s Alex Moos just 150 meters from the finish in Meiringen on Sunday.

The two had broken away from the rest of the field on the descent of the day’s toughest climbm the Susten, just 10km from the finish.

Casagrande outsprinted the Phonak rider at the end of the 147.7km race to beat Moos by a matter of inches, for a winning time of 4:37:35. Domo’s Piotr Wadecki took the field sprint 15 seconds later to finish third.

Photo: Graham Watson

Coast’s Alex Zülle maintains his grip on the leader's yellow jersey with Allesio’s Laurent Dufaux trailing him by nine seconds.

Dufaux and Zülle were both involved in a frenzied end to this stage as the top 10 in the overall standings - minus Austrian Gerhard Trampusch - battled for places. As the race hit the last climb of the day, up the Susten, the lead changed hands several times. Moos and Casagrande took charge on the descent and managed to build up a lead of 30 seconds over the final 10 km. It was good enough to fend of the pack, but Moos had no such luck trying to keep Casagrande at bay. Casagrande attacked with 150 meters to go, a move the tiring Swiss could not match.