The Tour de Suisse might be the fourth stage in importance after the 3 Grand Tours. The Swiss national race is the longest in the World Tour after the Giro, Tour and Vuelta with 9 days of competition which normally include time trials, mountains and hills stages. The organization of the race has decided to repeat the route that was raced in 2015 as it was very successful in terms of the show to the fans. The highlight of the race is the last stage that finishes in Sorenberg and features the Glaubenberg Pass relatively far from the finish line. There are also two mountain-top finishes at Verbier and Arosa.
The best rider in the history of the race is Frank Schleck, who took the wins both in 2009 and 2013. The Luxembourgish has said that he would be delighted to win a third time and has peaked for the race. However, last year's winner, David Lopez, will also be at the start alongside Chris Froome, winner in 2012. The mixed route will allow for many riders to target the GC but the race is also sometimes prone to surprises as there are a few stages that will be difficult to control for even the stronger teams, especially the last one.
Favorites:
- Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team): Peter Stetina comes to Switzerland without any racing after the Giro d'Italia. His season has been a bit lacking so far as he was saving energy for the Giro and then crashed in one of the flat stage and was injured for a few days. That did not stop him from taking a stage win at Val Martello but his aim to recover a top 10 GC position after his crash could not be met. With the rest after the Giro he will surely be looking for a battle in Switzerland.
- Chris Froome (Team Sky): The Tour de Suisse 2012 is the only stage race win in the record of Chris Froome and he has always stated that he likes very much racing in Switzerland. He also got the podium in this year's Tour de Romandie in the country. However, there are some doubts cast on his shape at the moment as his performance in the Giro was a bit underwhelming. It looked like there were too many and too hard mountain-top finishes for his liking.
- Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Soudal): The Lotto leader skipped the Giro d'Italia to give Robert Kiserlovski the lead of the team and in the Dauphine the long and flat time trial did not really suit him. Nevertheless, his target for this part of the season is the Tour de Suisse and if his earlier performances in the spring are a reference he should be a contender. Of course, he would rather not have two time trials in the route but they are hilly enough so that those are no problem for him.
- Cadel Evans (Movistar Team): Cadel Evans also skipped the Giro but was much better than Vanendert in the Dauphine, taking a 7th place in the GC. It was a bit underwhelming for the team as they were expecting him to be close to the podium. The Australian has been solid this season but is still missing a good result in a stage race like the podium he got in the Tour de France last year. The Vuelta, his main target for the season, is still far so he can use his energy in Switzerland.
Other riders with a chance could be Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC), Frank Schleck (Etixx - Quickstep), David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Michele Scarponi (Movistar Team) and Juanjo Cobo (HTC - Highroad).
Among the sprinters the best riders are Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Lloyd Mondory (Etixx - Quickstep), Simone Ponzi (Team Katusha), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team), Elia Viviani and Theo Bos (Team Cannondale - Garmin).
The Tour de Suisse starts in Lugano, close to the Italian border. The prologue will be the only 7 kilometers long but it is not designed for the time trial riders as it will be mostly a climb to one of the many hills in the town and then a descent towards the town centre. The climb has maximum gradients of 18% so the hills riders will probably have an edge. That will also cause the gaps in the GC to be bigger than in the typical prologue so the GC riders will have to make an effort.
When Andrew Talansky (HTC) started the best time so far had been set by Michele Scarponi. The Italian had been quite fast and his time was already a good reference time. In fact, Andrew Talansky could not match that pace and was 7 seconds slower. He took the 2nd provisional place in the classification but it already seemed a time that would not put him in the top 10 of the stage at the end of the day. The American had a few good days and took a win in the Giro but HTC are waiting a lot more from him this year.
A few more riders started before Michael Rogers (Trek) had to run. The Australian has done a step forward this season and started to be a relevant rider in the GC of stage races, although not among the best yet. Emanuele Sella had taken over the lead in the classification in a very surprising fashion, given how bad he normally is in time trials. Rogers did not like the route of the prologue that much and ended up losing 13 seconds to Sella and taking the 4th provisional spot.
Cameron Meyer is Michael Rogers' teammate in Trek. The American team is the powerhouse when it comes to time trialists. It was not the best of the routes for the World Champion either but he has proven to be a lot better when the road turns uphill this year. Nevertheless, he was not quick enough and had to settle for the 3rd provisional place 6 seconds slower than Emanuele Sella. Michele Scarponi still held the 2nd position at the finish line.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) was the next of the favorites for the stage to start. The American comes in a very good shape after taking the 5th position in the Criterium du Dauphine. The Tour de Suisse is another race that should fit him due to the long time trial. His performance today was not too bad but he was not close to taking the lead from Emanuele Sella. Leipheimer was 6 seconds slower than the Italian and settled for the 4th provisional place. Nevertheless, it was a hopeful start for the week.
A few of the favorites started very late in the day, Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) included. The Dutch has a liking for Switzerland as he took the last 2 Tour de Romandie but he has never had a podium in the Tour de Suisse. A bit before him Cadel Evans had snatched the best time so far improving Emanuele Sella's time by 6 seconds. It was a big gap for a prologue this short. Mollema was not even close and could only take the 10th provisional place, 16 seconds behind Evans. It was not a good start for the Vacansoleil rider.
Rui Costa (Ag2r) took the win last year in this same route but this year he was not going to repeat the feature. Cadel Evans had done a very good time and Costa could only get the 3rd provisional place 7 seconds behind at the finish line. Nevertheless, this puts him in the chase of another podium finish like he got in the race in 2015. This season has been quite solid so far from Costa, especially with the 2nd place in the podium he got in the Paris - Nice.
Mathias Frank (IAM) started right behind Rui Costa and managed to replicate exactly the same performance that the Portuguese accomplished. He was 4th only a few tens of a second behind Costa and 7 seconds behind Cadel Evans. The Swiss is racing in his home country and is looking to get a good result out of the race. Frank already proved last year in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco that he has what it takes to grab a win in a stage race and will surely be in the mix.
The last of the favorites to start was Chris Froome (Sky). The British has generate high hopes among the fans back home after his 5th position in the last Tour de France of seeing him back at the level he had 4 years ago when he took the win in the Tour de Suisse. He is a potential outsider for a Grand Tour win but had failed to deliver this season. Today was not a good day for him and could not even get in the top 10, losing 13 seconds against Cadel Evans.
At the end of the day Evans took the stage in a slightly surprising fashion. Other riders were also performing way better than expected like Emanuele Sella, who normally loses lots of time in time trials, and Jelle Vanendert. Nevertheless, none of the favorites lost more than 20 seconds with regards to Evans and the first mountain-top finish will happen as soon as tomorrow when they go up Verbier in a stage longer than 200 kilometers.
Today's stage shares a lot with the 2nd of the past Tour de Romandie. The riders will come through the Italian border to tackle the Simplonpass, a more than 25 kilometers long climb but too far from the finish line to make an impact. After the climb they will enjoy a lot of flat kilometers towards Martigny, where the road will start to climb looking for the road that takes the riders to Verbier. It is the toughest mountain-top finish of the race so the climbers will take the best out of it.
Considering that the gaps are not big in the GC the break of the day was rather big. As many of 9 riders were at the front group at the top of the Simplonpass, including Bradley Wiggins (Lotto), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL), Maarten Tjallingii (Quickstep), Fabian Cancellara (Cannondale) and Luca Paolini (Astana). With 129 kilometers to go they had built a gap of 7 minutes over the main bunch. Tjallingii was first at the Simplon. Movistar, Lampre and Euskaltel were the teams setting the pace but it was quiet in the bunch.
There was not much to report in the long flat section towards Martigny, where the second intermediate sprint was placed. Alexander Kristoff was narrowly faster than Rui Costa and Cameron Meyer to grab the few points left. BMC and IAM seemed to have plenty of confidence in Peter Stetina and Mathias Frank as they chased and reduced the gap to only 2' 30'' with 26 kilometers to go. Martigny is the point where the road turns uphill but the proper climb to Verbier did not start until the 8 kilometers mark.
Some riders were way too keen to attack and probably wasted energy as Jose Serpa attacked with 20 kilometers to go and was followed by Peter Stetina and Jelle Vanendert. They were quickly reeled back but Robert Kiserlovski persisted in the attack and had a 20 seconds gap with the bunch at the sprint in Sembrancher, 14 kilometers to the finish line. It was unclear how this effort against domestiques in the bunch was going to help him. Meanwhile, the gap to the break reduced to 1' 25'' as the pace picked up considerably in the bunch.
The road crossing that gave way to the start of the climb to Verbier became a bit of a bottleneck and Peter Stetina was unlucky enough to crash and lose track of the group of the favorites. Worse than that, he was clearly injured and it would not be a matter of picking up the bike and coming back to the front group. Meanwhile, at the front of the race Robert Kiserlovski was leading with 7 kilometers remaining after passing the early break with a gap of 30 seconds over the chasers.
Robert Kiserlovski did not hold on to the lead for long and Johan Vansummeren led the chase to bring him back. However, in a very odd move Michele Scarponi attacked while having his teammate Cadel Evans as leader. He could not go solo but David Lopez and Frank Schleck opened a small gap at the front of the race. With 4 kilometers to go they had 30 seconds on the group of the leader, where Michele Scarponi and Bauke Mollema were chasing. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina had already lost almost 3 minutes.
The climb to Verbier is not too long but with an average gradient of more than 8% its slopes were taking a toll to many riders. David Lopez was leading the way alone with 2 kilometers to go but Jelle Vanendert was coming fast from behind and recovering time. At that stage the gap was around 15 seconds. Right behind him, Mathias Frank had joined Frank Schleck and were 25 seconds behind Lopez while the group of the leader was 55 seconds behind. Cadel Evans was not looking that good today and his yellow jersey was very much threatened. Among those dropped behind were Juanjo Cobo and Andy Schleck.
Mathias Frank left Frank Schleck behind but was still losing 20 seconds on David Lopez, who was already inside the last kilometer of the stage. Jelle Vanendert kept cutting the gap but with 700 meters to go seemed unlikely to catch Lopez before the finish line. Lopez needs a gap to take over the leader's jersey. Meanwhile, Cadel Evans did not have his best day and his group was 1 minute behind already but the same can be said of others like Chris Froome or Bauke Mollema.
David Lopez wins in Verbier! The Spaniard repeats the win he already got last year at the top of the Swiss ski resort. He almost lost it in the last few hundred meters as Jelle Vanendert came fast from behind. However, the Belgian had to settle for 2nd. He will be the new leader of the race but David Lopez is on the same time. Lopez and Vanendert had already fought for the win in the Paris - Nice and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco earlier this year so we might be up for another show between the two.
However, the time gaps were not so big this time as Mathias Frank lost 18 seconds and Frank Schleck crossed the finish line 38 seconds behind. Chris Froome led the group of the leader almost 1 minute behind. With a lot of stages to go the gaps are not insurmountable. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina arrived in the finish line completely bruised and 7 minutes behind the winner. The American has not had any luck with the crashes this year and can say goodbye to a top 10 finish in Switzerland. There were even rumours of him retiring from the race.
The third stage in the Tour de Suisse is the first that the GC riders will be able to take it easier. The stage takes the riders north through a long route of almost 200 kilometers. However, the stage will not be that difficult except for the last 30 kilometers. After the first passage through Aarberg the riders will have to tackle the climbs to Frienisberg and Innerberg. They should not be too hard and the sprinters should get through them but the subsequent descent towards the finish will be quite fast.
The break of the day was formed straight away, only a few kilometers after starting in Martigny. It was 4 riders that formed the group: Dries Devenyns (BMC), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Jonathan Castroviejo (Ag2r) and Jan Bakelants (Discovery). Halfway through the stage they had built a gap of 7' 45'' on the main bunch but the peloton still had plenty of time to chase. Movistar and Quickstep seemed very keen to work for Jose Joaquin Rojas and Lloyd Mondory respectively.
The sprinters did not care that much about the intermediate sprint in Wiler as it was only 29 kilometers from the finish line and they had to save energy for the finish. Fran Ventoso was leading the peloton for Euskaltel at the sprint ahead of Sebastian Langeveld. The gap to the break had reduced considerably in the flat before the first passage through Aarberg and was 2' 05'' at the sprint. However, with a couple of hills Dries Devenyns looked quite dangerous for the stage win. The 170 kilometers they already had in their legs might be a problem for him though.
The tougher of the climbs, Frienisberg, was raced first. As expected, Lieuwe Westra and Dries Devenyns took the responsibility to keep a good pace in the climb for the front group. They had 1' 40'' even though the riders chasing in the bunch included Greg van Avermaet and Bjorn Leukemans. With 21 kilometers to go it was difficult to judge whether that gap would be enough, especially given that the last 8 kilometers are downhill and anyone that gets to the top of the 2nd climb ahead has a good chance of taking the stage.
Euskaltel pushed a lot in between the two hills and the break was finally caught at the top of the Innerberg. Rinaldo Nocentini and Danilo di Luca were leading the main bunch across the top of the climb, where only 8 downhill kilometers remained. It was important for the sprinters to have a good positioning ahead of the descent as it would not be too easy to gain positions back. The best placed at the top were Alexander Kristoff and Elia Viviani.
There was not time for sprint trains today as they were impossible to build in the midst of the descent. Frank Schleck had managed to get the first position and was leading Lloyd Mondory. The French had Alexander Kristoff, Chris Sutton and Giacomo Nizzolo. The peloton was really stretched and it would be difficult for others to make progress in the 2 kilometers before the sprint. Lotto was organized behind protecting Jelle Vanendert. Among the sprinters that are too far back were Jose Joaquin Rojas and Simone Ponzi.
Frank Schleck was still leading the way with 700 meters to go. The Luxembourgish was doing a good job to take Lloyd Mondory in a good position for the final sprint even though he is involved in the GC. Alexander Kristoff was right behind the French but Giacomo Nizzolo was already starting to make progress on the left hand side of the road. Chris Sutton was a bit behind and probably too far back to win the stage. Jose Joaquin Rojas and Simone Ponzi were nowhere to be seen today.
Lloyd Mondory wins in Aarberg! The French held off Giacomo Nizzolo for the win after a very good work from the whole Quickstep team. Mondory was probably the best transfer that was made the last winter as Quickstep had a hard time getting wins last year and Mondory has already won 6 times this year. Alexander Kristoff was not too good in the final sprint and was a bit disappointing in the final sprint. Nevertheless, he took the third place.
The top 5 was completed by Chris Sutton and Nacer Bouhanni. Bouhanni was very surprising as he has not had any results in his career so far. The GC did not have any changes but Peter Stetina dropped from the main bunch in the last hill and lost a few more minutes. It must be very hard for the American to digest the fact that he lost his chances in the Giro and the Tour de Suisse due to crashes. Tomorrow the stage will be a bit more difficult and probably not for the sprinters.
Marco Pinotti has been for the best part of his career a rather low profile rider. The Italian was not a pure domestique but he wasn't either a star. To take into account how consistently mid-class he was there is one piece of data worth noting. His best overall result in the World Tour rankings up to 2014 was a 54th place. He managed to get it 3 times and once he was 55th. If he had tried to do it on purpose it would have been mightily difficult.
To be sure, Pinotti had his chance to shine over the years as he got a stage win in the Paris - Nice in 2011 while racing for Radioshack. He won from a break in the last stage that started and finished in Nice the year that Peter Sagan took the overall win. The previous year he also managed an 8th final position in the GC of the Tour de Romandie. The second win in his career came in 2013 when he won the long time trial in the Tour de Suisse and got the 10th place overall. Looking backwards at that Tour de Suisse it is probably the turning point for Pinotti's career.
He stayed one more year in the BMC structure but he was never given any responsibilities other than supporting the leaders, especially in a team that had Tejay van Garderen and Peter Stetina in 2014. It was his transfer to Omega Pharma - Quickstep that changed the life of Pinotti as he was given a role to chase his own objectives. Thanks to that he came back to Switzerland and took the 4th place overall and more importantly got the bronze medal in the ITT World Championships in Richmond.
In 2016 he has steped up considerably and he has added to his win tally by taking the time trial of the Giro d'Italia, for sure the most important win in his career. He also managed to be 2nd in the podium of the Tour de Romandie only 15 seconds behind Bauke Mollema. His more immediate target will be the ITT European Championships in Belgium but repeating his performance in the ITT World Championships will be tricky as there are many riders that are targeting the rainbow jersey.
The 4th stage is not too different from yesterday's route but with a lot more difficulties along the way. There is also a circuit around the finishing town, in this case Trimbach / Olten, that is 43 kilometers long but the climbs in that loop are way harder. The last of them is Salhohe, only 3.5 kilometers long but averaging more than 8% gradient should be a hard enough test. The sprinters are therefore not expected to fight for the stage and it could even be an opportunity for some of the favorites to gain time.
The break of the day was formed straight away as 3 riders attacked right from the start line in Aarberg: Simon Spilak (Tinkoff), Stefan van Dijk (Giant) and Mauro Santambrogio (Sky). The pace in the bunch was really slow in the early part of the day and their gap grew very fast. The first serious difficulty of the day was the Scheltenpass, which top was 106 kilometers from the finish. The 1st category climb was hard enough for riders to start suffering at the pack. The gap had grown to 8 minutes at that stage but teams like BMC, Lotto and HTC were starting to get riders to the front.
Alexander Kristoff was quicker than Giacomo Nizzolo and Luca Paolini at the intermediate sprint placed before the first passage through the finish line. Lotto was setting a pace at the front of the bunch but they were not crazy about bringing back the break too early. Therefore, the gap stayed at 4 minutes. In between the early break and the bunch was Ruben Plaza, who attacked in the descent of the Scheltenpass but had been unable to bridge the gap.
The first climb in the final circuit was Unter Hauenstein. The road started to go uphill right after the finish line but its gradient was not as high as the subsequent hills in the final loop. Stefan van Dijk was the first at the top as the break kept a good gap behind them. However, with 35 kilometers still to race it was difficult to say whether they would make it to the finish. In the meantime the gap was dropping due to the work done by Rinaldo Nocentini in the bunch for Euskaltel. Among those left behind were Peter Stetina and Lloyd Mondory.
Simon Gerrans was the first rider to attack in the bunch close to the top of the Unter Hauenstein but he could not sustain his gap. Rui Costa attacked considerably harder in the next uncategorized hill but he was followed by Emanuele Sella, Mikel Nieve and Tom Slagter. The 4 riders had a gap of 25 seconds on the bunch at the top of the hill but the early break still had almost 2 minutes on them. Danilo di Luca and Robert Kiserlovski were doing the chasing in the bunch, which meant that a few riders were going to be dropped off the back.
The hills were very close to each other in this part of the stage and the last one of the day was Salhohe, marked as a 2nd category climb. The group that had formed was reeled back in during the descent but Rui Costa had the stage marked and attacked again. At the top of the climb he was already quite close to the break, 30 seconds behind with 18 kilometers remaining. Mikel Nieve had tried to follow but was losing 55 seconds at the top while the bunch was 1' 10'' behind the leaders. Among those close to the top of the GC, Frank Schleck was the only rider that tried to attack and Chris Froome also tried to break in the last kilometer of the climb.
Rui Costa and Mikel Nieve made it to the early break but there was no understanding among the 5 riders at the front and they were eventually absorber by the group of the leader. That allowed a few riders that had been dropped in Salhohe to rejoin the bunch to form a rather big group. However, Simon Gerrans took advantage of the fact that Euskaltel were taking a respite on the control at the front to attack and opened a gap of 15 seconds. With 7 kilometers to go that was not enough by any means but there was a good battle.
When Simon Gerrans was about to be caught it was the time for Juanjo Cobo to attack. Euskaltel was oddly chasing every attack when it would be very difficult for them to actually take the stage win. However, Cobo had 25 seconds on the group with 2 kilometers to go and that might be enough to get the win at Trimbach / Olten. Simon Gerrans and Mikel Nieve tried to attack again but Greg van Avermaet was doing the chase for Euskaltel and not allowing the gaps to grow.
As Juanjo Cobo entered the last kilometer of the stage the main bunch started to close down on him. Simone Ponzi was about to pass the Spaniard with 700 meters to go and looked perfectly positioned to win the stage as he was the quickest in the group. He was followed by the two Colombians from Ag2r: Miguel Rubiano and Jose Serpa. It was strange that they were not working together. The leader, Jelle Vanendert, was also close to the front and willing to take a few bonus seconds. Among the outsiders, Tony Gallopin was a bit behind and blocked by other riders.
Simone Ponzi wins in Trimbach / Olten! It is not a surprise that the Italian takes the stage as he already won last year over the same route. It is the 5th win for Ponzi in 2016. Jose Serpa was quite fast in the final sprint but could not hold his progression in the last meters of the stage. He took the 2nd place ahead of his teammate Miguel Rubiano. The top 5 was completed by two of the outsiders for the stage: Bjorn Leukemans and Tony Gallopin. Leukemans did not attack when he could have made it, probably respecting that Vanendert is wearing the yellow jersey.
In the end 90 riders made it to the finish line in the front group, which is a lot more than expected. The pace did not look slow but clearly there were riders that did not put a high effort in trying to get some time today. There will be a couple of easier stages after this one where some of the sprinters might have a chance. Nevertheless, they are not at all easy stages where a mass sprint is guaranteed and there might be opportunistic attacks close to the finish.
There is quite a few stages in the Tour de Suisse that are difficult to predict and the 5th is one of them. The stage is catalogued as flat but the final circuit around Gansingen includes 3 climbs for a total cumulative climbing in the stage of almost 2300 meters. Therefore, it will be difficult for an important rider to gain time but an opportunistic attack might make it to the finish line ahead of the bunch. A more or less massive sprint is also in the cards.
The break of the day was formed in the early kilometers of the stage and 4 riders made it into the group: Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Samuel Dumoulin (LottoNL), Lars Boom (Giant) and Jan Barta (Lampre). The day was quite windy and that was not helping the pace of the group at all. Nevertheless, they had managed to open a gap of 7' 45'' at the top of the Beukerijoch, 107 kilometers from the finish line. Dumoulin was 1st at the top of the climb but none of the riders were too interested in the points. Meanwhile, Movistar, Quickstep and Lotto were leading the bunch but they were not in a rush to chase.
Lotto took the lead of the bunch and started to reduce the gap to the break progressively. By the time the bunch got to the second climb to the Kaistenberg, the last climb in the circuit, the gap was down to 3' 10''. The pace in the hills was starting to hurt the sprinters a little bit and they still had 54 kilometers to endure. The peloton will probably lose quite a few riders before the end of the stage. The worst news came from LottoNL - Jumbo camp as Tom Danielson crashed in one of the descents and had to withdraw from the race.
Lieuwe Westra was the strongest rider in the break and he started to push in the hills during the last lap to the circuit around Gansingen. Jan Barta had dropped from the group as they reached the 2nd intermediate sprint in Oberbozberg, at the top of the second hill of the circuit. With 27 kilometers to go they still had a good gap but the headwinds in the second part of the lap was going to hamper their chances. Meanwhile, the bunch was pushing with Maarten Tjallingii and Pablo Lastras at the front for Quickstep and Movistar respectively.
The last climb was too much for the riders in the early break and they were swallowed by the main bunch halfway through the third climb to the Kaistenberg. Frank Schleck took the lead of the bunch and the pace considerably increased at the peloton. Quickstep clearly trusted Lloyd Mondory to do well in the final sprint. Euskaltel riders were also close to the front with Rinaldo Nocentini and Danilo di Luca. Alexander Kristoff was very close to the front alongside Elia Viviani. They still had 14 mostly flat kilometers to the finish.
Euskaltel tried to form a sprint train but only Greg van Avermaet made it to the front and he was leading Alexander Kristoff with 3 kilometers to go. The rest of the sprinters were right behind as Lloyd Mondory, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Simone Ponzi were quite close to the lead. Jelle Vanendert also said that he would try to get a few bonus seconds to get clear in the GC. Meanwhile, there was a crash at the descent of the climb and riders like Vincenzo Nibali and Dries Devenyns were reportedly affected. Peter Stetina also dropped from the back still suffering from his injuries.
Euskaltel pulling with Greg van Avermaet ahead of Alexander Kristoff was a fluke as Fran Ventoso attacked with 2 kilometers to go for the Spaniard team. Davide Rebellin also made a move and closed the gap to Ventoso but was quickly followed by Rui Costa and Emanuele Sella. The final couple of kilometers could not be classified as hilly but the terrain was neither completely flat. Bjorn Leukemans also tried to surprise other riders but with a bit more than 1 kilometer to go it was unclear. Lloyd Mondory was still sticking to Kristoff's wheel but it did not look wise to do that.
Fran Ventoso ran out of energy and was passed by many riders. With 700 meters to go Rui Costa was leading the way ahead of Davide Rebellin. Emanuele Sella was third on the road right behind his teammate Tony Gallopin. The French was by far the quickest among the riders that were fighting for the win as Simone Ponzi had been blocked and was having a hard time making progress. Cameron Meyer was also in the mix. The Australian is quite fast in this kind of reduced group finishes.
Tony Gallopin wins in Gansingen! The French is far quickest than the riders that were ahead of him and managed to get the win in the 5th stage. This is the second win of the season for Gallopin, who took a stage in the Tour Down Under in the Australian summer. The second place went to Cameron Meyer, who has proved a few times that he can sprint among the best when the races are hilly. Luca Paolini finished very fast but was positioned too far behind when the sprint started, while Jelle Vanendert and Jose Joaquin Rojas completed the top 5.
There were no changes in the GC even though Vanendert tried to take bonus seconds in the finish line. Tomorrow will be a day that should be a bit easier for the sprinters, while the GC riders will have to wait for the last 3 stages to fight for the overall win in the race. Vincenzo Nibali will not be among those after he lost more than 3 minutes today after his crash in the descent of the last climb of the day.
This will be the last opportunity for the sprinters in a stage in the Tour de Suisse, so they better take advantage of it. Nevertheless, they will have to suffer again a little bit to make it to the mass sprint. There is a circuit again in the surroundings of Bischofszell but the hills are not as hard as in previous days. The climb to Schocherswil is only 5 kilometers from the finish line but it should not be hard enough for the sprinters to drop out of the main bunch.
The break of the day was probably a bit bigger than what the teams of the sprinters wanted but the profile of the riders was quite low so they did not see much of a threat. Among the 7 riders in the front group were Heinrich Haussler (Ag2r), Bryan Coquard (FDJ), Jonathan Hivert (Sky) and Daryl Impey (Astana). At the second intermediate sprint in Mullheim, with 97 kilometers to go, they had a gap of 5' 15'' over the bunch. Jose Joaquin Rojas was quicker than Lloyd Mondory on both of the sprints and in the first collected maximum points as the break had not yet formed.
The first of the climb in the final circuit was tackled for the first time with 50 kilometers to go. The riders in the break were not interested in the KoM points so there was no fight on that front. They were busy trying to hold on to their lead, which Lotto had been keeping at around 3' 15'' for many kilometers. Bradley Wiggins led the peloton through the top of the climb followed by his teammates Sep Vanmarcke and Tim Wellens. Quickstep and Movistar were also appearing again at the front of the pack during the last few kilometers.
The break was making it difficult for the peloton to chase them back as the roads in the circuit are not very good for a big group to chase. Bryan Coquard tried to go solo and with 10 kilometers to go had 10 seconds on his former companions in the break and 40'' on the main group. Euskaltel had also joined the chase with quality riders like Greg van Avermaet. Quickstep was also interested in chasing and even put Frank Schleck to relay. The final kilometers were good for both Alexander Kristoff and Lloyd Mondory.
Euskaltel took the lead of the peloton displacing Quickstep after a fairly dangerous roundabout and with 3 kilometers to go it was Greg van Avermaet leading. He was followed by Fran Ventoso and Alexander Kristoff. He was followed by Jose Joaquin Rojas, Chris Sutton and Theo Bos. The peloton was very stretched and Lloyd Mondory had lost many places, leaving his changes of taking the win hurt. The favorites in the GC should also be careful as there might be gaps appearing in the middle of the pack and they could lose precious seconds.
Fran Ventoso was perfectly leading Alexander Kristoff as the riders approached the flame rouge. Euskaltel was in complete control of the stage so far but they had to be careful with Jose Joaquin Rojas sitting on the wheel of Alexander Kristoff. The Spaniard is one of those riders that could be quicker than Kristoff sometimes. Cameron Meyer was outside the line of sprinters trying to make up for the ground he lost during the positioning phase and more or less at the same point was Lloyd Mondory. The French was 6th on the road, a bit too far behind.
Alexander Kristoff took the lead of the sprint with about 700 meters to go from his teammate Fran Ventoso as the other sprinters started to close down on him. As expected, Jose Joaquin Rojas was the rider that looked more threatening for the Norwegian. Cameron Meyer had also started the sprint very early but made progress to the 4th position on the road but it looked unlikely that he could challenge for the win. Chris Sutton was 5th but a bit too far behind already to fight for the stage, which should go to either Kristoff or Rojas.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Bischofszell! It was a very dominant sprint by the Euskaltel rider, who managed to put a lot of space between him and the 2nd in the stage, Jose Joaquin Rojas. It is the 4th win in the season for Kristoff. Rojas' sprint was not bad but nowhere near the speed shown by Kristoff and he almost lost the 2nd place to Lloyd Mondory in the last meters of the stage. Mondory sprinted very fast but started too far behind to be a factor. The top 5 in the stage was completed by Cameron Meyer and Francesco Gavazzi.
Meanwhile, there was a break in the peloton in the main bunch and the biggest name in the back was David Lopez. He lost 1 minute alongside other riders like Cadel Evans or Michele Scarponi. Euskaltel were too concentrated on delivering Alexander Kristoff in the best position to the final sprint that they could not help David Lopez. Something similar can be said for Cadel Evans as Jose Joaquin Rojas took the 2nd place in the stage. This leaves the GC much clearer as the battle should be between Jelle Vanendert and Mathias Frank.
