Germany’s young Linus Gerdemann of Team CSC joined an early breakaway group and then outlasted his peers in order to win Friday’s stage of the Tour of Switzerland.

“I need to sleep one night and wake up tomorrow to realize what I’ve done,” said the 22-year-old, who has never won a race in major international competition. “But now it’s time for me to go back to my role of being a teammate.”

The two remaining days of the nine-stage race could be the most difficult yet, according to Michael Rogers of Quick Step, who retained the yellow leader’s jersey, and still leads race favorite Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) by 20 seconds.

“I’m in a good opportunity here,” said the Australian, when asked if he might let go of the lead in order to save energy for the Tour de France. “I’ll hang on to the jersey until I drop. When opportunities arise, I’m one to take them.”

The 193km stage took the riders deep into the Bernese Oberland – one of the country’s most mountainous and spectacular regions.

After various fractures and regroupings of the peloton, seven riders managed to escape around 40km into the day. By the time they reached the day’s biggest summit (a Cat. 3 climb with 74km to go), that group had built a four-minute lead on the rest of the field.

In that group were Freddy Rodriguez (Davitamon-Lotto), Karsten Kroon (Rabobank), Martin Elmiger (Phonak), Linus Gerdemann (Team CSC), Lorenzo Bernucci (Fassa Bortolo), David Etxebarria (Liberty Seguros) and Joseba Albizu (Euskaltel).

None of those racers was a threat to the current race leaders (among them, Elminger was the rider with the best GC placing at the start, and he was more than five minutes out). Nevertheless, there were strong efforts from a handful of teams in the peloton – notably Davitamon-Lotto – and the lead was whittled to less than a minute by the final 10km.

Results are posted

At 8km, Gerdemann made his attack. Although Bernucci almost caught him at the end, Gerdenmann dug deep to persevere for the win. “I was really at my limit at that last kilometer,” Gerdemann said. “But when you’re doing so well and you’re so excited you don’t feel the pain.”

A rider who looks up to his teammate and countryman Jens Voigt, Gerdemann wants to ride in the Vuelta a España later this season.

The Tour of Switzerland is now parked at the foot of Switzerland’s highest mountains. The legendary mountaineering attractions of the Eiger and Jungfrau are just a two valleys to the east. Just a few miles south as the crow flies is the world-famous Crans Montana ski area and the town of Sion, once an Olympic candidate city. And to the northwest is Gstaad, the exclusive Swiss resort where royalty and tennis stars vacation, and former-007 Roger Moore keeps a chalet.

Saturday’s course will take the peloton through that town and down into the French-speaking Rhone River valley before a final difficult climb to the high Alpine town of Verbier.