Stage 20: Caldes Val di Sole - Passo dello Stelvio
The Giro d'Italia is drawing to an end but there is one more mountain stage before the final time trial tomorrow in Milano. Today's stage will finish in the Cima Coppi of the Giro, the Passo dello Stelvio, but this will not be the only difficulty of the day. The riders will have to tackle the Passo del Tonale, Aprica, the Salita de Teglio and the Passo del Mortirolo. The Mortirolo is a very hard climb and is climbed from Mazzo this time. The peloton should be broken far from the finish line and from then on it could be chaos.
A very big group of 17 was formed in the Passo del Tonale, 182 kilometers from the finish line. BMC tried to chase them back and did not want to give them a big difference, which was only 1' 45'' at the top. The most important riders in the break were Franco Pellizotti (Astana), Joaquim Rodriguez (Discovery), Janez Brajkovic (Quickstep), Giovanni Visconti (Trek), Jose Serpa (Ag2r), Bradley Wiggins (Katusha), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Movistar), Alexandre Vinokourov (Sky) and Vasil Kiryienka (Tinkoff). It is going to be a long day in the saddle for the riders in the break.
Jose Serpa is the provisional leader of the KoM classification and today is the last day when points are available. Only Franco Pellizotti is fighting against him in the break but he is too far behind to be a threat. BMC was setting the pace in the main bunch but with Bernhard Eisel and Marco Marcato working at the front it is going to be very difficult for them to cut the difference, which has increased to 8 minutes. Bradley Wiggins and Cyril Gautier crashed from the break due to the rain but they came back to the front. At the bunch all the riders that had dropped from the bunch in the Tonale were also back.
The middle part of the stage was uneventful but the Passo del Mortirolo started with almost 70 kilometers to go in the stage. The slopes of the famous climb are very hard and will weigh on the riders. Janez Brajkovic took the responsibility to set the pace in the break in a bid to reduce the big group at the front. They had a good shot on the stage, given that the difference was 10 minutes at the start of the climb but the two climbs remaining are too hard. In the break it is now Johann Tschopp at the front, who increased the pace considerably.
BMC was still setting a tempo in the pack that made the difference grow to 11' 30'' at the 5 kilometers to the top mark. Nevertheless, the Mortirolo is a very demanding climb that is surely making a lot more damage to the legs of the riders than what the size of the group indicates. Alessandro Ballan joined Johann Tschopp at the front but there were almost 100 riders left in the bunch. The feeling is that no rider is brave enough to attack the pink jersey of Peter Stetina so far away from the finish line in the Stelvio.
Franco Pellizotti leads Jose Serpa at the KoM sprint of the Mortirolo. However, the Colombian is now very close to winning the KoM classification as there is only one more climb to go in the Giro. The break is already dreaming with a stage win as they had 12 minutes on the bunch as they crossed the top of the climb. However, some riders like Martin Elmiger and Tom Dumoulin are already suffering and almost lost contact in the last kilometers.
The flat between the end of the descent of the Mortirolo and Bormio, where the Stelvio started, was not completely flat but a quite difficult terrain. BMC made the race a bit harder with Ryder Hesjedal setting the pace at the front and the group reached the bottom of the Stelvio with a much smaller size. With 21 uphill kilometers to go the opportunities to attack Peter Stetina's lead were not over yet. Meanwhile, Bradley Wiggins attacked in the break from the start of the climb but the pace that Hesjedal set made the difference decrease considerably.
Michele Scarponi was the first important rider to attack in the final climb but the Italian brought most of the favorites with him. However, there were two notable riders missing: Jelle Vanendert and Laurens Ten Dam, who were 1' 30'' behind with 12 kilometers remaining. Ten Dam chose not to follow but he put his Cannondale teammates to chase. Davide Rebellin and Bauke Mollema had also missed the move but were slightly ahead of Vanendert's group. It seems like it is not a good day for the Belgian. The bad news are for the break as they are losing tons of time in the first half of the climb and their chances are now slim at best.
Peter Stetina took the lead of the group of favorites and with 6 kilometers to go he looked set to put as much time as possible between him and his chasers, Jelle Vanendert and Laurens Ten Dam. In the meantime the riders from the break had all been overtaken by the group led by the man in pink. Only 8 riders stayed with him in this group in an easier part of the climb. A group including Jelle Vanendert, Laurens Ten Dam and Bauke Mollema was losing 50 seconds; Pieter Weening was 1' 20'' behind and the group of Jurgen van den Broeck and Emanuele Sella was 1' 40'' behind.
Jelle Vanendert and Laurens Ten Dam caught up with Denis Menchov when the riders entered the last steeper 3 final kilometers. The two men in the podium were trying to gain back time on the front group and were already catching up with the riders that lost contact due to the high pace that Peter Stetina was imposing. However, they might still lose their podium place as Rob Ruijgh is still holding on in Stetina's group, 45 seconds ahead of them. Juanjo Cobo and Jerome Coppel were other riders that had lost contact and were in an intermediate position.
The uncertainty about the winner of the stage and probably the Giro was over as Peter Stetina entered the last kilometer of the stage. No one was able to follow his steady pace up the Stelvio and he was alone to finish the stage in style. Frank Schleck and Michele Scarponi were the riders that stayed with him the longest but they eventually had to let him go and they were 45 seconds behind under the last kilometer banner. A bit further back were Laurens Ten Dam and Jelle Vanendert, who had caught up with Rob Ruijgh and they looked set to save their podium places. Many riders that tried to follow Stetina were now paying the price and losing positions to riders coming from behind.
Peter Stetina wins in the Passo dello Stelvio! The American takes his second stage win in a row and is the virtual winner of the Giro d'Italia. Stetina certified today that he is the best climber in the field of the Giro and looks ready to win his second Grand Tour, entering the group of riders with 2 wins alongside Hubert Dupont and Bauke Mollema. The second place in the stage, 1 minute behind was for a surprising Jelle Vanendert. The Belgian had saved some energy for the late rush to maintain the gap with Stetina as other riders lost time.
Frank Schleck and Michele Scarponi finished behind the Belgian, 1' 22'' after Stetina. Both of them have had their best day in the Giro. This allowed Schleck to keep the 6th position from Bauke Mollema. Laurens Ten Dam was 5th and he put 9 more seconds on Rob Ruijgh. However, the third place is one of the closest ahead of tomorrow's time trial in Milano. Unfortunately, not too many riders are expected to exchange positions in tomorrow's closing stage.
Milano will be the host of the final time trial of the Giro 2015. Unfortunately, this stage will not be very relevant for the GC as it takes place after a hangover of mountains. Additionally, it is the only long time trial of the race, if a 30 kilometer stage can be considered long. As it takes place after such hard stages the favorites in this kind of time trials are not the specialists but the riders in the GC and we will probably witness one of them taking the stage.
The first favorite to take the stage was Levi Leipheimer (HTC). The American did not disappoint and improved on the best provisional time, set by David Millar. Leipheimer was 40 seconds faster than the British, who is a very good time trialist, which should put him in a very good position in the stage. Leipheimer, who started the day 19th in the GC, will be the second man of HTC in the race after Juanjo Cobo.
Marco Pinotti (Quickstep) was also among the favorites to take the stage win in Milano. However, even though the Italian is riding at home he could not beat the fantastic time that Leipheimer had set and had to settle for the provisional 2nd place, 36 seconds behind the American. Pinotti had it very difficult to reach the 16th place that Rui Costa held before the stage and was 22 seconds short of overtaking the Portuguese in the GC.
Katusha had its hopes high in getting Denis Menchov into fighting for big targets in the Grand Tours but the Russian only partially met these prospects. He was quite strong in this last time trial but it only served him to take the fourth provisional time, 37 seconds behind Leipheimer. The day finished even worse for Menchov as he was tied with Mikel Nieve for the 10th place in the GC but lost on the sum of the positions in the stages. They are the only 2 riders in the same time in the whole GC.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) had arrived in the Giro as one of the top favorites, especially considering that he had won the Tour de Romandie only a week before the Italian race. However, even though he wore the pink jersey until the uphill sprint in Assisi, he was going worse with each day that passed. Today was a good chance for him to shine again but he could not match Levi Leipheimer's time. Mollema had to settle for the second provisional time 35 seconds behind Leipheimer. This practically means that Leipheimer will take the stage win today as there is no one else that is a good time trialist among the riders remaining.
Frank Schleck (Quickstep) had another solid yet unspectacular Grand Tour in Italy. The Luxembourgish seems to be always around the top 10 but can never break through and get a podium. Today he just had to manage his pace to maintain a gap with Bauke Mollema and he did it by taking the 32nd provisional time, 1' 55'' behind Leipheimer. Schleck will have to raise his performance one notch if he wants to be considered a super - star but it sometimes looks like he might do it at some point in his career.
Robert Gesink (Ag2r) started the day in the 5th place in the GC but he had the target of overtaking Rob Ruijgh for the 4th final place. Both Dutch had been among the most attacking riders in the mountains but in the end they would need a miracle to get into the podium of the race. Gesink was very solid and took the provisional 7th place in the stage, 44 seconds behind Levi Leipheimer. Judging by the intermediate splits it was going to be a close call with Rob Ruijgh. Either way, Robert Gesink proved that he might be a rider to consider in the future for a potential win in a Grand Tour.
Rob Ruijgh (Belkin) would have to defend from Robert Gesink his 4th place but he did not succeed. Only 11 seconds separated both riders in the final GC after Ruijgh finished his time trial on the 28th place, 1' 48'' behind Levi Leipheimer. The Belkin rider is not a good rider against the clock and he paid for it on this last stage of the Giro. The Dutch was the winner in Milano 2 years ago but he was quite lucky with the crashes from Bauke Mollema and Mikel Nieve in that edition. This year he has been solid but could not even repeat the fight he had last year in the Vuelta a España against Peter Stetina.
The third in the podium at the end of the Giro d'Italia was going to be Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale). This will be the first time that he is in the podium of a Grand Tour but Ten Dam has already been hinting at this possibility for a couple of years, especially after taking the overall win in the Volta a Catalunya. Even though the stage was not very important for him he worked hard to get the 9th provisional time, 53 seconds behind Levi Leipheimer. It is difficult to say what will be the ceiling of Ten Dam as a rider but his late explosion could mean that he runs out of years to take a major win.
The second final position of Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) comes as quite a surprise. The Belgian is more focused in the hilly classics than in the Grand Tours but that made him feel at home during the first part of the race. Once he had the pink jersey it seemed to give him wings. Vanendert was also lucky that the Giro had few time trial kilometers as he lost 1' 45'' today. An earlier time trial would have been much worse for his ambition of getting the win in the Italian race. Nevertheless, this was a massive performance from an unexpected rider. His teammate Robert Kiserlovski, who should be Lotto's main man for the Grand Tours should take note.
The winner of the Giro was the last to start the time trial. Peter Stetina (BMC) proved that he was the strongest rider in these last weekend and today he put even more time on Jelle Vanendert. The American took the 7th place in the final stage, 43 seconds behind Leipheimer. In the end he took the Giro with a gap of 2' 40'' on Jelle Vanendert and 4' 15'' on Laurens Ten Dam. This is the second win in a Grand Tour for Peter Stetina after his win in the 2014 Vuelta a España. He could well be the next dominating rider after taking the crown of Bauke Mollema.
Stetina was not happy with only the win in the GC but he also took the points' classification narrowly beating Vanendert in the last stage. The mountains' classification went to Jose Serpa, Francesco Gavazzi was the best young rider and Cannondale took the teams' classification. The peloton heads now to Switzerland again for the Tour de Suisse before the first "national" championships of the story.
The Giro d'Italia might be over but the racing does not stop as the peloton moves to Switzerland. The Swiss race is one of the most important one-week races of the season and is considered a target for some of the biggest names of the peloton. The organizers have repeated the same route as 2 years ago, with mountain-top finishes in Verbier and Arosa and a very interesting last stage with the finish line in Sorenberg after the climb to the Glaubenberg. There will also be 2 time trials so the winner will have to be a complete rider.
The participation will not be as good as in other editions of the race, given that many of the Grand Tour riders are doubling the Giro and the Tour and riding also the Tour de Suisse would probably be too much. Therefore, the twice winner of the race, Frank Schleck, will not be at the starting line in Lugano. Peter Stetina, the winner of the Giro and third in 2013 will also miss the Swiss race. In fact, none of the riders that were in the podium of the Giro will be there. Therefore, the faces of the favorites will be quite different to what we have seen in the past 3 weeks.
Favorites:
- Tejay van Garderen (Trek Factory Racing): Van Garderen's season has been completely focused around winning the Tour de France for a second time and as many candidates for the Tour that meant skipping the Giro d'Italia. The American comes back to the roads after taking a good podium in the Tour de Romandie but where he was beaten by Bauke Mollema and Levi Leipheimer. The time trial kilometers in the Tour de Suisse should mean that he is around the best at the end of the week.
- Mathias Frank (Garmin - Sharp): Mathias Frank already knows what it is like to win this season as he won the Vuelta al Pais Vasco earlier in the spring. The Swiss will be riding at home and marked the Tour de Suisse as one of the targets in his calendar. Therefore, it is expected that he is one of the candidates for the Tour de France that gets to Switzerland in a better shape.
- Cadel Evans (Movistar Team): Evans has had a solid season so far and with many climbers missing from the Tour de Suisse he can be one of the favorites for the final win. The Australian was 5th in Pais Vasco and in La Fleche Wallonne already this season and also got a top 10 in the Tour de Romandie. Also, the amount of time trial kilometers favors the options of the Movistar rider.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi): David Lopez is almost always a favorite wherever he goes but there are a couple of issues that might lower his chances in Switzerland. First, the time trials don't favor the Spaniard, who will probably lose time to most of the other favorites. Second, he stated that he is still short of fitness and hopes to improve with the looks set in the Tour de France.
Other important riders that will be present in Switzerland will be Levi Leipheimer and Andrew Talansky (HTC - Highroad), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery Channel), Rui Costa (Tinkoff - Saxo), Marco Pinotti (Omega Pharma - Quickstep) and Chris Froome (Team Sky).
There are many sprinters that skipped the Tour de Suisse, mostly because they will be doing the double Giro and Tour. Among the ones that are present the most notable are Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing), Alexander Kristoff, Sacha Modolo and Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Simone Ponzi (Team Katusha) and Elia Viviani (Cannondale).
The prologue of the Tour de Suisse is basically going up and down one of the hills in the surroundings of Lugano so the outcome of the stage is quite unpredictable. The specialists will probably not have much of an advantage but it is difficult to say beforehand whether the riders that can go through the hills will make it. It will probably be a combination of the two what will give the stage win and the leader's jersey.
The first favourite to start today was the current winner of the Tour de France, Tejay van Garderen (Trek). The American easily beat the best provisional time, set by Anthony Roux, by 11 seconds. The differences between the favourites will not be very big in this time trial but it is always good to have a good start and that is what Van Garderen did today. It might be enough for him to be with the best in the mountains and settle the race in the long time trial.
Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) is probably the best time trialist in the World but this prologue does not favor him particularly. He managed to take the 4th provisional time, 11 seconds behind Tejay van Garderen. It would not be enough for a top 5 in the stage but his main focus this week will be the long time trial and preparing for the "Rest of the World" championships that take place in a couple of weeks in Colombia. He is expected to fight against Tejay van Garderen for the Time Trial crown.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) finished the Giro on a high but he could not repeat that performance today. He started his Tour de Suisse with around half the riders gone and took the 6th provisional time, 12 seconds behind Tejay van Garderen. Leipheimer will have to share the leadership of the HTC team with Andrew Talansky this week as one finishes his peak of form coming from the Giro and the other is in the latter stages of his preparation for the Tour de France.
The rest of the favorites for the stage raced towards the end of the day, starting with Marco Pinotti (Quickstep). In the meantime, a very surprising David Lopez had taken over the first position in the stage from Tejay van Garderen. Lopez was expected to lose time today but was going to be very close to the top. Pinotti was not so fast but managed to get into the top 10, taking the 7th provisional spot 12 seconds behind the Spaniard. Pinotti might even have a chance to shine in this Tour de Suisse, as he will be the leader of the team and the competition is not that hard.
Mathias Frank (Garmin) was next. The Swiss was riding at home and, even though he did not manage to beat David Lopez's time, he left a good sensation by taking the 3rd provisional time 3 seconds behind David Lopez and tying with Tejay van Garderen. Frank made his appearance among the top riders 1 year ago in the Tour de France but has quickly become one of the most well known names in the field due to his good results this season.
Rui Costa (Tinkoff) was another of the favorites and he did not disappoint. The Portuguese improved on David Lopez's time and took the first provisional place by 1 second with only a handful of riders to go. Tinkoff is in dire need of the points that Rui Costa can provide and this kind of races that combine time trials with hills and mountains seem to be where he moves best. It would not be surprising to see him in the top 5 at the end of the week if he does not lose too much time in the climb to Verbier.
Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) usually does very well in prologues as he showed in the Paris - Nice last year in a similar stage and in the Tour de Romandie this year. However, today's climb was harder and too much for the Norwegian, who had to settle for the 41st best time, 24 seconds behind Rui Costa. It seems clear seeing the results so far that the prologue was more biased towards the hills riders than the specialists and the favorites for the GC did not lose much time today.
The last of the favorites to win the prologue was Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) but as happened with Alexander Kristoff the climb was way too much for the Italian sprinter and he could not be better than 115th, 33 seconds behind Rui Costa. Nizzolo will have to focus on getting a stage win taking advantage that Andre Greipel skipped the Tour de Suisse and he will be the leader of the team in the sprints.
All in all, the differences among the candidates to win the Tour de Suisse were really small and Levi Leipheimer was the worst losing only 16 seconds. Tomorrow's stage will be very relevant for the GC as the climb to Verbier will put order in the GC. The winner there will take a good step forward towards getting the final win in the Tour de Suisse.
The first proper stage in the Tour de Suisse will take the riders through Italy and the Simplonpass before entering Switzerland again. The riders already did something really similar in the Tour de Romandie in the stage finishing in Sion. However, today the finish will be much harder as they will have to face the climb to Verbier. It is the hardest final climb in the race unless you consider Arosa a big whole climb and it could well produce differences that make a comeback difficult for some riders.
Many riders wanted to join the break of the day but it was only 5 riders who made it in the group: Jose Serpa (Ag2r), Sergio Henao (Orica), Andriy Grivko (Giant), Jonathan Hivert (Sky) and Peter Velits (Vacansoleil). They had a gap of 7 minutes on the main bunch at the top of the Simplonpass but still 129 kilometers to go to the finish in Verbier. Lampre, BMC and Tinkoff were the teams setting the pace in the bunch but they apparently had no rush in closing the gap yet.
Rinaldo Nocentini attacked late in the climb to the Simplonpass and spent most of the flat towards Martigny chasing the break. He finally caught up with them shortly before the intermediate sprint in Martigny, with 26 kilometers to go. However, the bunch had already started chasing hard at that point and the gap had decreased to only 2 minutes. It did not seem a clever move by the Italian. Elia Viviani beat Simone Ponzi in the intermediate sprint but not too many sprinters joined the battle for the remaining points.
The climb to Verbier started with 8 kilometers to go but the road was already climbing slowly through the valley through Sembrancher. A few riders tried surprise attacks in the few slopes before the proper climb, including Mathias Frank, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Simone Ponzi but Euskaltel managed to control the pace of the bunch with Alexander Kristoff and Sacha Modolo. The high pace meant that the break only had 20 seconds on the bunch at the start of the climb and were about to being caught. The stage will therefore be decided among the favorites in the final climb as expected.
Kanstantsin Siutsou was the first rider to attack in the climb but it was David Lopez who opened a gap very soon after a very hard attack. The Spaniard reached the 5 kilometers mark with 40 seconds over his chasers and it seemed like no one was able to follow the high pace that he was setting. Lopez had already done a great job yesterday taking the second place in the opening prologue. Mathias Frank and Robert Kiserlovski seem to be the riders leading the chase but they did not seem to be able to close down the gap.
The chasers group disintegrated due to the high pace of the chase and with 3.5 kilometers to go only 5 riders were behind David Lopez. They were Mathias Frank, Robert Kiserlovski, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Bjorn Leukemans and Rui Costa. They were losing 35 seconds at that point, slowly closing the gap to the Spaniard. It is surprising to see Leukemans with the best in a stage that is more mountainous than hilly. Another group of 16 riders was 1 minute behind Lopez and some important riders like Andrew Talansky, Andy Schleck and Hubert Dupont had lost contact with this group as well.
Mathias Frank left the rest of the chasers behind and went on his own to catch David Lopez. However, the gap was still at 30 seconds with 2 kilometers to go, probably enough for Lopez to take the stage and the leader's jersey. A group of 16 had come together 1 minute behind the Spaniard including Rui Costa, Tejay van Garderen and Cadel Evans. Meanwhile, an important rider like Andy Schleck was already losing 2' 30''. It seems like the GC is going to be very spread open after today's stage if the gaps keep appearing.
Cadel Evans led the group of the leader as David Lopez entered the last kilometer of the stage. Mathias Frank had been able to cut the lead to 25 seconds but Rui Costa's group was still losing time and the difference was sitting at 1' 10'' at that point. It is surprising that riders like Tejay van Garderen, Jurgen van den Broeck or Dries Devenyns are not taking a more important role on this group but all the work seems to be falling on men like Evans or Robert Kiserlovski.
David Lopez wins in Verbier! The Spaniard made a show of power today in the first mountain-top finish of the Tour de Suisse to claim his second stage win this season and take the leader's jersey from Rui Costa. The Euskaltel rider is now the main favorite to take the final win in the Swiss race. The only rider that managed to stay close to Lopez was Mathias Frank. However, the Swiss ended up losing 28 seconds.
The gap to the group of the leader was even bigger and all the riders there will need to be in an attacking mode if they want to get something out of this race. Cadel Evans led the group 1' 20'' behind Lopez. Rui Costa and Robert Kiserlovski followed the Australian at the finish. Other important riders completely lost their chances today, like Andrew Talansky, 2' 46'' behind, Andy Schleck and Levi Leipheimer, who lost more than 4 minutes. Tomorrow's stage will be mostly flat so no changes are expected in the GC.
The third stage in the Tour de Suisse is difficult to predict. The route is fairly flat, with the only difficulty of the climb to Chatel-St-Denis halfway through the stage but the last 20 kilometers include the climbs to Frienisberg and Innerberg. The climbs are not hard enough to discard a mass sprint but the fact that the finish line is placed at the bottom of the descent will make the preparation for the sprint rather different and if someone can gain a few seconds at the top he might well win the stage.
The stage was rather quiet after a few kilometers of battle at the beginning of the stage to form the break of the day. The group that opened a gap was formed of 5 riders: Enrico Gasparotto (Quickstep), Sonny Colbrelli (Lampre), Martin Elmiger (Orica), Julian Arredondo (Katusha) and Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil). With 100 kilometers to go, they had a gap of 7 minutes on the bunch, where Trek, Euskaltel and Cannondale were working but with no rush to bring back a break that seemingly posed no danger.
Not much happened until the intermediate sprint in Wiler, just before the start of the climb to Frienisberg. The peloton had worked to reduce the gap and with 29 kilometers remaining it was 2 minutes, clearly not enough for the break to have confidence on a potential stage win. In the intermediate sprint Elia Viviani was the only sprinter to go for the points, which suggests how difficult the sprinters consider the points' classification in the Tour de Suisse.
Julian Arredondo was first at the top of the climb to Frienisberg ahead of Enrico Gasparotto. The gap to the bunch had decreased to 1' 45'' but the teams of the sprinters did not want to push the candidates for the stage too much and the climbing pace was not too hard. Trek and Cannondale are controlling the race and there were no attacks from outsiders in this climb. It is quite strange that no rider tried an attack, such as Bjorn Leukemans, who could well take a stage win from a few kilometers out.
Trek took the lead of the bunch before the last climb of the day, Innerberg. To be honest the climb was not more than 1 kilometer long but with Peter Kennaugh, Philippe Gilbert and Tejay van Garderen at the front it was enough for the American team to finish the hopes of the break at the very top of the climb. From that point, there were 8 kilometers of descent to the finish line in Aarberg. The climbs were not too hard in this final part of the stage but they may make a difference in the sprint for the line. It will be very important to be well positioned in the descent.
There was a big fight for positioning in the descent. With 2 kilometers to go it was Euskaltel leading the way. Francisco Ventoso was opening the way with Alexander Kristoff, their main sprinter, right behind. Elia Viviani was taking advantage of that work and had taken the wheel of Kristoff. On the right hand side of the road Daniele Bennati is the last man working for Giacomo Nizzolo. Among the rest of the sprinters at the front of the race are Luca Paolini, Simone Ponzi and Tom Boonen.
Alexander Kristoff led the way with 700 meters remaining and there was not too much time for recovering because the downhill sprint was very fast. Daniele Bennati followed, still ahead of his leader Giacomo Nizzolo while other riders like Fran Ventoso, Denis Galimzyanov and Luca Paolini were also at the front. It seemed like Nizzolo was going to have it difficult to win from the position he is in. The downhill was proving quite dangerous at this speed and that is why some sprinters are not the ones that are seen usually at the front.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Aarberg! The Norwegian has shined in lots of places this season and it is the 3rd stage win of the year for him. Euskaltel has also begun the Tour de Suisse in top shape as they won yesterday with David Lopez and today with Kristoff. Luca Paolini was the surprising second across the line, while Giacomo Nizzolo had to settle for third. Simone Ponzi and Peter Sagan completed the top 5.
It was a sprint for the brave men and Nizzolo suffered quite a bit in the last kilometers to find his position. That probably cost him the win in the end. Additionally, it seemed like the sprinters that go better through the hills had an edge today. The bad news came from Chris Froome, who crashed in the descent but was on his feet fast enough to be awarded the same time as the winner. Others, like Jose Serpa, were not as lucky and a few riders lost time, none of them among the favorites.
The fourth stage will take the riders from Aarberg to Trimbach / Olten through a rather hilly route. The hardest climb of the day will be the Scheltenpass but it is more than 100 kilometers from the finish line and, therefore, it is difficult that any attacks from its slopes succeed. The final circuit around Trimbach / Olten should be the most interesting part of the stage but the last climb, Salhohe, is 17 kilometers from the finish line so the stage could be either interesting or boring depending on the willingness of the riders to attack.
The first half of the stage was quite crazy due to the strong winds in the route and the willingness of a few teams to control the race and not let a big break go. Euskaltel, helped by others like BMC and Quickstep, already brought back two groups and another attempt reached the Schltenpass with only 1' 15'' on the group were HTC was working now. The group at the front was quite strong, including Tom Boonen (Sky), Sylvain Chavanel (Giant), Francesco Gavazzi (Cannondale), Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre) and Wout Poels (Belkin). The speed that the pack is holding means that a few riders have already dropped from the peloton more than 100 kilometers from the finish line.
The flat between the Scheltenpass and the first passage through the finish line, where the intermediate sprint was placed, was even crazier in the bunch. The strong crosswinds and the pace held by HTC at the front caused echelons to appear in the main group and a rather big group including Tiago Machado (7th in the GC), Dries Devenyns and Davide Rebellin lost contact with the group of the leader. That started a frantic chase and caused the break to be swallowed by the bunch very soon. Others went into the attack mode as the hills came close. Miguel Rubiano was first in the intermediate sprint, 20 seconds ahead of Simone Ponzi. The group of the leader lost 55 seconds at that point. Machado's group was losing 2' 40'' at that point. Fortunately for Tinkoff, they still had Rui Costa at the front.
Many outsiders smelled the possibility of a surprise win and the climb Unter Hauenstein was very hard. Xavi Tondo and Janez Brajkovic joined Miguel Rubiano at the front of the race, while another group of 5 including Hubert Dupont and Rinaldo Nocentini was 20 seconds behind. This meant that the pace in the group of the favorites could not stop. Euskaltel was starting to feel the pain of the echelons and many riders from the Spanish team were losing contact with this group. Meanwhile, Tiago Machado had no teammates to work in the hills and his group lost 3 minutes at the top of the climb.
The group that was ahead at the Unter Hauenstein was caught back but another stronger one replaced them. Chris Froome was leading Bjorn Leukemans, Philippe Gilbert, Oliver Zaugg and Hubert Dupont at the start of the climb to Salhohe, with 20 kilometers still to go. These are very important riders, even for the GC as is the case of Froome. They had 35 seconds on the group of David Lopez, who has even had to chase an attack by Rui Costa himself. From now on it seems like the Spaniard will have to take care of himself and controlling this race could prove difficult.
Rui Costa attacked for a second time and even though some tried to follow nobody managed to do it. The problem for the Portuguese is that he run out of uphill before catching up with Chris Froome and Bjorn Leukemans, who were 20 seconds ahead of him at the top of Salhohe. Costa had a few second on the group of 16 that remained with David Lopez. Among those that lost contact in this last climb are Janez Brajkovic and Andrew Talansky but they are not losing much time and they have a chance to come back in the flat after the descent.
David Lopez had to lead the chase in the group of the favorites because Rui Costa is too dangerous to be allowed to take a few precious seconds in the finish line. The Spaniard successfully reeled back all of the riders that were ahead under the 10 kilometers mark. However, his next worry is going to be how vulnerable he might be in the flat given the amount of rivals that are in the group. Meanwhile, Tiago Machado had already written off the fight for the GC as his group was losing 7 minutes. Dries Devenyns was also still riding with him.
David Lopez was maintaining a not too slow pace in the flat towards the finish line in Trimbach / Olten and with 3 kilometers remaining he had successfully managed to keep everything together. Andrew Talansky had managed to come back to the group from behind taking advantage of the slowdown. In the fight for the stage Simone Ponzi is the massive favorite to take the win. The Italian might have some competition from Emanuele Sella and Rui Costa but he should easily leave both of them behind in the sprint.
Many riders started sprinting from far out and at the last kilometer mark it was Emanuele Sella at the front. The Italian is among the quickest men in the front group. Mathias Frank, the second in the GC, is chasing close behind probably looking for a few bonus seconds while Tejay van Garderen, Cadel Evans and Robert Kiserlovski are following. Simone Ponzi is right behind this group, probably timing his final sprint because it is difficult to think of someone else to win today's stage.
Simone Ponzi wins in Trimbach / Olten! The Italian did not leave space for the surprises and clearly beat the rest of the riders in the group of favorites. It is difficult to find a rider with as much superiority in the sprints among the riders that can go through a tough hilly stage. This is the second win for Ponzi and his set of abilities will probably bring much more in the future to go along the Milano - Sanremo he took last year.
Mathias Frank took the second place in the stage and therefore cut the lead of David Lopez in the GC by 3 seconds. Emanuele Sella, Tejay van Garderen and Cadel Evans completed the top 5 of the stage. The favorites should face now two quieter stages but that should be interesting enough for Simone Ponzi as there are not many sprinters that can go through the difficult circuits that are planned in the following days.
The stage to Gansingen is again classified as flat, as the one finishing in Aarberg, but it will be a tricky one for the sprinters. The final 40 kilometers circuit around Gansingen is hard for a flat stage and has two categorized climbs. Additionally, the stage has an accumulated 2,300 meters of climbing and is 193 kilometers long. All that added means that the most probable winner of the stage is stronger all around than the typical sprinter.
Only 4 riders managed to make it into the break of the day: Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Wilco Kelderman (Giant) and Juanjo Lobato (Movistar). They had a gap of 6 minutes on the main bunch at the first intermediate sprint of the day, in Laufenburg. It was already inside the final circuit around Gansingen. In the bunch sprint only Simone Ponzi seemed interested in the points available, which will probably put him as the obvious favorite to take the final win on this classification at the end of the race.
Katusha and Trek are working at the front of the pack in the second climb to Buresteig, the hardest of the climbs in the final circuit. That means that the gap to the break has decreased to 3 minutes with 36 kilometers remaining. It seems like the teams of the favorites for the stage are just managing the gap to the front group. The Russian team has a lot of confidence on Simone Ponzi and try to make the race harder in the uphill parts. There might be a few sprinters not making it to the final sprint.
The last categorized climb of the day was only 14 kilometers to the finish line. It was the third climb to the Kaistenberg. Lieuwe Westra was first at the top a few seconds ahead of Wilco Kelderman and Alessandro Ballan. They still have 55 seconds at the top of the climb but Tejay van Garderen is working at the front of the pack to bring them back as soon as possible. Euskaltel is also working, understandable after the win that Alexander Kristoff got 2 days ago.
Trek worked a lot during the stage but when they had to form a sprint train everything seemed to fall apart. Daniele Bennati did not have the strength and only Michael Rogers was there for Giacomo Nizzolo. On the other hand, Euskaltel looked very strong and had Sacha Modolo ready to work for Alexander Kristoff. The difficulty of the stage is starting to take the levy on some riders. Among other sprinters that are well positioned the most relevant are Oscar Freire, Peter Sagan, Denis Galimzyanov and Michael Matthews.
Euskaltel was looking very strong and Sacha Modolo proved that they were strong by delivering Alexander Kristoff perfectly to the last kilometer. Trek's sprint train completely fell apart and Giacomo Nizzolo seems to be completely discarded for the stage win. Kristoff is in the best position and he is followed by Oscar Freire, Cameron Meyer and Andriy Grivko. The peloton is much stretched and coming from behind could prove very tricky.
Alexander Kristoff was not as strong as expected and by the looks of it Euskaltel should have gone for Sacha Modolo in this stage as their main sprinter. However, with 600 meters remaining it is Oscar Freire who took the lead of the sprint ahead of Modolo. The Spaniard was looking good but Luca Paolini and Michael Matthews were progressing fast on the right hand side of the road as they go by Alexander Kristoff. It was difficult to predict who the winner of the stage would be.
Michael Matthews wins in Gansingen! The Australian came from behind to overtake a lot of riders within the last kilometer. This is the 4th win of the year for Matthews, who ties with Peter Stetina as the rider with the most wins in the season so far. Matthews is exploding as one of the biggest sprinters of the season after the difficulties he had for winning in the past. Peter Sagan was second and Simone Ponzi third, proving that this was a stage for the sprinters that can go through the hills.
The top 5 was completed by David Lopez and Luca Paolini. It is surprising that Lopez joined the sprint but a few bonus seconds would have been a good price for him in an unexpected stage. Tomorrow's stage has a resemblance with today's but the climbs are a bit softer and the purest sprinters should have a better chance of going for the stage. That will be the last chance they have in the Tour de Suisse.
