The days for the sprinters and the stage hunters are over and the GC favorites will start battling for the overall win from today. The 7th stage is a 34 kilometers long time trial which route circles around Gossau and close to the Zurichsee lake. The profile is quite hilly so it is a time trial that is more suited to the more complete riders rather than to the specialists. Therefore, it would not be surprising to see one of the favorites for the race take the stage in Gossau.
The rain was pouring when the World Champion, Cameron Meyer (Trek), started his time trial. The wet roads might play a role in the outcome of the stage as there are a couple of descents that will be tricky. Alexander Kristoff had set the early pace in the stage and Meyer was starting close to the middle of the starters list. The Australian proved that he is the best rider in time trials and also a very complete rider and easily moved into the top spot by improving Kristoff's time by 40 seconds.
Trek has very good riders against the clock and the second of the favorites for the stage to start was Michael Rogers. The Australian would have liked a flatter time trial but he was still quite competitive in this route. Unfortunately for Trek, none of their riders were in the mix for the overall classification as Rogers was the best placed rider before the stage 6 minutes behind. He could not beat his teammate's time but took the 2nd provisional place 40 seconds behind Meyer. He gained 2 places in the last sector of the stage as he had set the 4th best time in the second intermediate check.
Rui Costa (Ag2r) had already done a very good time trial last year over the same route and it was no different today. The Portuguese was 9 seconds quicker than Cameron Meyer through the second intermediate check and against all odds he increased the gap in the flatter section towards the finish line. Costa took over the best provisional time with a margin of 12 seconds, which will leave him with a very good shot at taking the stage. The last time Costa won a stage it was the prologue of the Tour de Suisse last year.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) started the day well within reach of the top 10 in the GC and he was one of the favorites to take the stage win as well. The American is quite good in this mixed time trials and came to Switzerland after getting the 5th place in the Criterium du Dauphine. However, even if he is in general a better time trialist, he could not beat Rui Costa's time and crossed the line in the 3rd provisional place, 39 seconds behind the Portuguese. This would be a good boost for him in the GC.
Movistar was also looking for a good result in the GC with Cadel Evans, given that he is one of the riders that can combine good time trials with good stages in the mountains. The Australian was caught by the break in the peloton during the previous stage and would be keen to gain back time. His time trial was actually quite good and he crossed the line 3rd provisionally, 36 seconds behind Rui Costa. This will surely put him back in contention for the podium if not for the overall win.
David Lopez (Euskaltel) had had a very good start of the Tour de Suisse but was also caught yesterday and lost 1 minute to the rest of the favorites. That seemed to hurt him today as he was expected to do very well in this time trial. He consistently lost time in all of the time checks and ended up crossing the finish line in the 10th provisional place, 1' 11'' behind Rui Costa. His chances of taking the overall win would be much hurt as he expected to gain time on other favorites and it would be difficult to do so.
Chris Froome (Sky) was the 4th rider in the GC before the stage, although on the same time as David Lopez. The British had been regarded as a potentially strong rider for stage races after a good 2015 but has been a bit underwhelming so far with only a podium in Romandie so far. In the Tour de Suisse he has a chance to gain some momentum back. It was a rather good time trial for him as he finished with the 4th provisional time, 37 seconds behind Rui Costa. That will allow him to stay clear of David Lopez.
The last of the podium places was occupied by Frank Schleck (Quickstep) before the stage. The twice winner of the race was stronger than expected in Verbier but the time trial ability is not one of his characteristics. It was proven by the fact that he lost most of the time in the last part of the stage, much flatter than the first couple of sections. In the end he was 19th in the stage when he crossed the finish line, albeit 1' 24'' behind Rui Costa, which leaves him in the GC behind Chris Froome. The British would finish the day in the podium.
The penultimate rider on the road was Mathias Frank (IAM), the local favorite to win the race. Frank already won the Vuelta al Pais Vasco last year and was 2nd in the Tour de Suisse. Today he lived up to the expectations that his countrymen had put on him and delivered an outstanding performance to grab the lead. He finished alongside Frank Schleck and beat Rui Costa's time by a big margin of 39 seconds, more than 1 second per kilometer. With only Jelle Vanendert to finish, the closest rider to Frank in the GC would be Chris Froome but more than 2 minutes behind.
The last rider to start and leader of the race was Jelle Vanendert (Lotto). The Belgian is a rider that does not like time trials at all so he was grateful that the route was quite hilly in the long time trial of the Tour de Suisse. Nevertheless, he could not get even close to Mathias Frank outstanding effort and ended up losing 1' 09'' against the Swiss and taking the 4th place in the time trial. Considering his expectations, that was quite a good result from Vanendert as it was expected that he lost time to David Lopez and ended up beating the Spaniard by 41 seconds.
Mathias Frank took the stage and the leader's jersey today, which leaves him in a perfect position to fight for the overall win in the next 2 stages. The margin he got today means that only Jelle Vanendert is within 2 minutes of his position, which should guarantee him a finishing podium place. The most disappointing rider was probably David Lopez, who will finish the day 5th but way too far behind to have a chance. The positive surprise so far is Ben Hermans, who is settled comfortably in the top 10.
The UCI published this evening the proposal for the 2017 calendar. The highlight of the season will be the return of the Tour de France, which replaces the Giro d'Italia. The European National Championships have been awarded to Great Britain, while the Rest of the World will be raced at Kazakhstan.
For the World Championships, the Norwegian town of Bergen has been chosen as host. The route is yet to be determined but the rumours point to a hilly circuit although not so hard that Alexander Kristoff will not have a chance to fight for the rainbow jersey.
The effort that every rider did in the time trial will be judged today with a mountain stage finishing in Arosa, the ski resort in the eastern part of Switzerland. The first part of the stage is not too difficult and the climbs only start with 30 kilometers to go. The climb to Arosa is divided in three sections. The first one to Castiel is the hardest and is marked as a category 2 climb. This is followed by a relatively flat section that will leave the riders 5 kilometers from the finish line in Arosa after another steep climb. It is therefore a day for the climbers but the stage is not too hard and the differences should not be big.
It did not take too long for the break of the day to take shape today. A group of 6 riders attacked early in the stage and found no opposition from the main bunch. Among the riders in the group were Julien Simon (FDJ), Davide Rebellin (Astana), Maxime Monfort (Quickstep), Vasil Kiryienka (Tinkoff) and Eros Capecchi (BMC). With 100 kilometers to go they had built a gap of 7' 30'' as the peloton was riding slowly in the midst of a really bad day in the rain and the wind.
The second intermediate sprint was placed in Trimmis, 41 kilometers from the finish line. Rui Costa was the quickest in the sprint of the bunch ahead of Simone Ponzi and Cameron Meyer. The riders had cross winds in the last 60 kilometers and Lotto and Sky tried to cause a break in the bunch. Jurgen Roelandts and Tom Boonen were putting a strain on many riders but in the end they could not leave any important riders behind and they slowed down. The gap of the break had gone down to 4 minutes.
It was not expected that the favorites attacked in the climb to Castiel but Mathias Frank decided that he could not speculate with his gap in the GC. Jose Serpa and Emanuele Sella had tried to break from the bunch early in the climb but halfway through it, 4 kilometers to the top, Mathias Frank attacked and quickly opened a gap of 40 seconds over the peloton. As expected, Jelle Vanendert responded and appeared at the front of the group to chase. Michele Scarponi tried to attack as well but the pace in the group of favorites had increased a lot.
There was a lot of headwind in the climb to Castiel and, even if Mathias Frank found help and protection in the early break group, he was wasting a lot of energies. His group was eventually reeled back in at the top of the climb after an attack from Cadel Evans that was not allowed to make progress. Jelle Vanendert had been protected at the center of the chasing group and he was probably looking to minimize the amount of energy he used in the chase. It would probably be better for the Belgian to look for a few seconds at the finish line with a late attack.
There were plenty of riders trying to break from the favorites group in the flatter section between the two climbs. The most dangerous one involved Bauke Mollema and Cadel Evans but, even though they stayed ahead for a while, they were reeled back in. With 10 kilometers to go it was Jose Serpa and Emanuele Sella that joined forces to leaves the group of the leader. They had 35 seconds on the chasers but Janez Brajkovic and Maxime Monfort were doing a good job to control the pace for Quickstep. Ben Hermans was also lending them a hand as he protected his 6th place in the GC.
The attack from Jose Serpa and Emanuele Sella did not go too far and as soon as the road turned uphill again Jelle Vanendert attacked. However, his attack was not that hard and Mathias Frank caught him and left him behind. With 4 kilometers to go the Swiss was alone at the head of the race with a few seconds gap over Vanendert and the rest of the favorites. David Lopez was trying to react to the attacks and Tiago Machado was stuck to his wheel. Meanwhile, Chris Froome was too far back in the group and he did not give out good feelings about his shape today.
Cadel Evans, David Lopez, Jelle Vanendert and Vincenzo Nibali were leading the group of favorites as they got closer to the 2 kilometers mark. The group had been narrowed down to 27 riders and they were still trailing behind Mathias Frank, who had a gap of 15 seconds. Frank might not get a massive gap but he is trying to show everyone who is the boss in the race. Meanwhile, the biggest riders missing from the group were Chris Froome and Juanjo Cobo. Both were 1 minute behind the leader already. Froome is looking not that good and his podium place was very much at risk.
Mathias Frank was still leading the race but the final push from the chasers meant that he was neutralised inside the last kilometer. Cadel Evans, Jelle Vanendert, Vincenzo Nibali and Mikel Nieve were leading the group and were the best positioned riders to take the stage win. That group started to break into smaller pieces and riders like Ben Hermans and Xavi Tondo would probably lose time at the finish line. Meanwhile, Chris Froome was suffering to limit his losses at the finish line.
Jelle Vanendert wins in Arosa! It was a very tight final sprint between the Belgian, Mathias Frank and Cadel Evans but in the end he managed to take the stage win and cut 2 seconds in the GC. Vanendert only attacked once and checked that it was not his best day today. He successfully managed to save energies for the final rush and take the win. On the other side, Mathias Frank was much more generous with his effort probably in a bid to threaten the other riders and prevent further attacks.
The top 5 was completed by Mikel Nieve and Vincenzo Nibali. In the end, as many as 18 riders made it home with the same time, a proof that many riders were not in a battling mode today. The biggest loser was Chris Froome, who crossed the line 41 seconds behind and dropped to the 5th place overall. Tomorrow's stage will be much more stressing for the riders as the climbs are way more difficult and the battle could start quite far from the finish line.
The last stage of the Tour de Suisse is by far the best traced in this race and one of the most interesting of the season. The route has everything to make a change in the GC possible as the climbs to the Glaubenbielen and the Glaubenberg are hard enough to break the race with more than 40 kilometers to go. Therefore, the favorites will have to pay a lot of attention to the expected moves in the climbs. Also, the stage is more than 215 kilometers long, which should cause problems for some of the riders and generate big gaps in the finish line.
The break of the day was quite large and strong, which could mean that they are allowed to make it to the finish line ahead. Among the 12 riders involved, the most important were Dries Devenyns (BMC), Johan Vansummeren (HTC), Wout Poels (Vacansoleil), Simon Spilak (Tinkoff), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre). IAM was not bothered to chase as Poels and Vansummeren were the most dangerous riders, 9 minutes behind in the GC. They built a gap of 7' 45'' with 135 kilometers to go. Katusha was the first team to increase the pace but only slightly.
Quickstep was the first team that was really interested in chasing and they put a couple of riders in the flat and Maxime Monfort worked for a while during the climb to Rengg, the first categorized climb of the day. However, as soon as the Belgian moved away from the front of the pack the pace dropped again as IAM was not keen on chasing with 113 kilometers remaining from the top of the climb. It would be difficult to chase if only Quickstep worked at the front. Meanwhile, Steven Kruiswijk beat Mauro Santambrogio for the KoM points at the top.
The finish line in Sorenberg was placed halfway through the climb to the Glaubenbielen, the first of the two serious climbs of the day. Steven Kruijswijk was again first at the top and was clearly going to fight for the KoM jersey at the end of the race. However, Mauro Santambrogio was still the leader of the classification. The peloton had cut the lead of the front group to 6 minutes given that Quickstep had put Pierre Rolland and Maxime Monfort to work a bit harder sporadically. The favorites were happy to wait for the Glaubenberg to move the tree.
A lot of riders were waiting for the start of the Glaubenberg to attack and they not disappoint. The Glaubenberg is a huge climb more than 14 kilometers long averaging 7.5% gradient. Emanuele Sella and Jose Serpa were the first to attack and they had cut the gap to the break to 4 minutes 7 kilometers from the top of the climb. The more dangerous Michele Scarponi and Xavi Tondo attacked a bit later and were also allowed to go, while Danilo di Luca tried to follow and failed. That triggered the reaction by Euskaltel. Rinaldo Nocentini started to work at the front of the pack and David Lopez was very close to the front. The peloton was 5' 35'' behind the leaders at that point.
As soon as Euskaltel started to chase it was clear that David Lopez would attack today. The Spaniard did not disappoint and attacked with 5 kilometers to go in the climb. That trigger a chain reaction of attacks and at some point it was difficult to know where everyone was. Chris Froome felt better than yesterday and was the frist rider to catch up with him. The two were caught at the top by 5 riders: Jelle Vanendert, Mathias Frank, Levi Leipheimer, Cadel Evans and Bauke Mollema. The riders was completely scattered behind this group. Meanwhile, the early break still held a lead of 1 minute ahead of Jose Serpa and Emanuele Sella.
The long descent of the Glaubenberg gave way to a flat section before the irregular final climb to the finish line. It allowed riders to form bigger groups but also increased some of the gaps. The group of the leader made a lot of progress and with 20 kilometers to go they had caught up with the early break and the riders in between, forming a 22 riders group. Steven Kruijswijk tried to attack but some of the riders like Diego Ulissi and Dries Devenyns started to work for their leaders. The biggest surprise was that Frank Schleck had not made it into the front group and was losing 1' 30'' alongside Ben Hermans and Andrew Talansky. They were isolated and would have to work hard in the remaining kilometers. Robert Kiserlovski was further back, 2' 40'' from the leaders.
Jelle Vanendert attacked very hard with 12 kilometers to go and managed to leave Mathias Frank behind. However, the leader found collaboration from riders looking to take the stage win and the Belgian was reeled back in. With 8 to go it seemed increasingly unlikely that he could open the 48 seconds he needed to take the overall classification against Frank. Cadel Evans and David Lopez led the group of 18 riders as a few of them dropped from the back, mostly those coming from the early break. The losses from Frank Schleck were too big at that point, 2' 50'', for him keep hopes of retaining a top 10 in the GC, let alone a place in the podium. That proves that the stage allowed for big gaps to appear.
There were a few more attacks but none too successful until Levi Leipheimer opened a gap with 3 kilometers to go. Emanuele Sella tried to follow but it was a worthless effort as Leipheimer seemed quite strong. His gap was mere seconds but there were no domestiques and any rider chasing him would have to waste precious energies. Movistar was the only team that could use either Michele Scarponi or Cadel Evans. Jelle Vanendert gave it a go again but again unsuccessfully. The only riders from the early break still holding on were Dries Devenyns and Wout Poels.
Levi Leipheimer still held a 10 seconds gap on the chasing group as they tried to close on him in the last kilometer. The climb to Sorenberg did not have big gradients but the last kilometer had slopes up to 9% so some gaps could be open in the group of favorites, especially given how hard the stage was. Among the chasers, Mathias Frank, Cadel Evans, Michele Scarponi and David Lopez were leading the way. It was clear that Jelle Vanendert had used much of his energies trying to break from the group earlier as he would have otherwise been the favorite for the stage.
Cadel Evans wins in Sorenberg! It seemed like Mathias Frank was going to take the final stage of the Tour de Suisse after catching and leaving behind Levi Leipheimer but the Movistar rider was very solid in the last meters of the stage to take advantage of Frank fading a bit to take his second stage win in the race. Frank crossed the line 2nd and took the overall win as Jelle Vanendert finished right behind, 3rd in the stage. There was a 17 seconds gap to the next group; Chris Froome was 4th ahead of Levi Leipheimer and David Lopez. That was a crucial gap as it allowed Cadel Evans to climb to the final podium of the race ahead of Lopez.
In the end Movistar will be very happy with 2 stages, a podium finish by Cadel Evans and a top 10 by Michele Scarponi even though their racing was chaotic at times. Happier than them will be Mathias Frank, who takes his first win in his home race. The race will also consolidate David Lopez's lead in the World Tour rankings, even though he did not get the result he was aiming for. It is also worth noting that Frank Schleck dropped in the last day from the 3rd to the 12th position overall after losing 4' 45'' at the finish line.
This is the second time that the National Championships are held and the Rest of the World Championships have been awarded to Buninyong, Australia. There will be only two National Championships this season, same as in 2015. One will be for European riders and the other for the rest. The time trial in Buninyong will be 42 kilometers long, enough to make considerable differences among the riders and it will not be completely flat, although the gentle hills should pose no problem to the specialists.
The current holder of the National jersey is Tejay van Garderen, who won ahead of Cameron Meyer in Duitama last year. This season they are teammates and, as only 2 riders are allowed per team, Michael Rogers will not feature in the time trial. It is very likely that the two Trek riders will share the first two positions of the podium and the other place should be among Levi Leipheimer, Cadel Evans and Andrew Talansky.
Favorites:
- Cameron Meyer (Trek Factory Racing): The World Champion is the clear favorite for the time trial for a number of reasons. He completed a very good race in the Tour de Suisse and was close to a stage win several times. He won the flat time trial in the Criterium du Dauphine one month ago and his form should be at least as good as it was back then. Last but no least the Championships take place in Australia and Meyer will want to do well at home.
- Tejay van Garderen (Trek Factory Racing): The main rival of Cameron Meyer is the current holder of the National jersey from the Rest of the World Championships. However, Van Garderen has not raced since the Criterium du Dauphine and his focus is more on the Vuelta a España than on these Championships. The American will likely battle for the win but the odds for his win are lower than for Meyer. Nevertheless, a podium finish should be more than feasible for him.
- Levi Leipheimer (HTC - Highroad): Leipheimer is another rider that comes from the Tour de Suisse. The American had a good performance and finished 7th in the GC, which suggests that he might also be in good shape ahead of the National Championships. Last year he was 6th in the race but he should take advantage of the absence of Michael Rogers from the race to fight for the podium. His teammate Andrew Talansky will also be in the mix so HTC should place a rider in the podium.
- Cadel Evans (Movistar Team): Cadel Evans was outstanding 2 weeks ago in the Tour de Suisse and managed to take 2 stage wins and the 3rd place overall. His form, added to the fact that he rides at home, should make for a good performance from the Aussie. Evans has been quite good so far this season and is meeting the expectations that Movistar had put on him at the start of the year. He will need to confirm it later in the year in the Vuelta.
Other riders with a chance could be Andrew Talansky (HTC - Highroad), Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team), Richie Porte (Orica - Greenedge), Tom Danielson (LottoNL - Jumbo), Michael Matthews and George Hincapie (Lotto - Soudal).
The time trial starts and finishes in Buninyong and the route is not completely flat, although that should not be a problem for the specialists as the hills are very short and gentle. The route takes the riders to the south of the town and back so the wind effect will be neglected if any. The weather seems to be rather good for the race so the favorites have no excuses. Even though the field is only 30 riders there is enough quality in the top riders to see a good show.
The first of the favorites to hit the road was Michael Matthews (Lotto). The Australian would probably be happy with a top 10 in today's race but the reference time had been set up by Tyler Farrar before he crossed the finish line. His season has not been as good as he wanted and he has not been able to grab a win so far. He might have a better chance in the road race. Matthews easily beat the time by a margin of 52 seconds, which suggests that the differences today would be quite big.
Andrew Talansky (HTC) started more or less halfway through the participants in the ITT race. The American had been in the podium last year in Duitama a few days before taking the win in the road race. Today he managed to shatter the time set by Michael Matthews a few minutes ago and he stopped the clock 1' 07'' faster than the Australian at the finish line. The time trial by Talansky was already starting to look as a candidate for the podium at the end of the day. The American is in need of good results as he has not had any since he took a stage in the Giro.
Tejay van Garderen (Trek), last year's winner of the National Championships time trial race, quickly took Andrew Talansky away from the hot seat as he improved on his time by 23 seconds. This was a very important time already as the two Trek riders were considered to be the hot favorites for the win. Van Garderen has had a few good days this year but he has been a bit below the expectations set for him before the start of the year. He has not had a single podium since the start of the season.
George Hincapie was the rider that Lotto trusted the most to get a good result in the time trial. However, the American would surely be very happy with a top 5 finish today. Hincapie has had a very tough season so far and the fact that there are many good riders in the Lotto team is probably hurting his own results. Hincapie could not even improve the time that his teammate Michael Matthews set a while ago and clocked the 4th provisional time 2 minutes behind the best time so far.
LottoNL - Jumbo has had a really poor season so far and Tom Danielson is not an exception. He had not had any results whatsoever and he could not blame the fact that many good riders are in the team. The Dutch team is simply not performing as they should and so far they are lucky that Giant is finding it tough to adapt to the World Tour, otherwise they would be at risk of losing the category. The American clocked the 4th provisional time but lost 1' 40'' to Tejay van Garderen, a great deal of time.
It is not usual that a Pro Continental team has one of the favorites for a race but Orica's Richie Porte is a good time trialist that could surprise one or two observers today. The local rider from Tasmania had stated that he was determined to have a peak of form around the National Championships to try to get a good result and he delivered the 3rd provisional time, 39 seconds behind Tejay van Garderen. That was a very good performance considering that Porte is not even considered a leader in his team, although being the only Australian in Orica is always a point in his favour.
Peter Stetina (BMC) started right behind Richie Porte. The American is probably the best climber of the World but has been unable to prove it this season so far as he crashed both in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse. Actually, the 30 year old does not seem to have fully recovered from his injuries and is having a hard time in this part of the season. His only result this season is the win at Val Martello in a classic stage in the Giro. Today was no better for him as he stopped the clock in the 4th provisional place, losing 1' 15'' to Tejay van Garderen.
Cadel Evans (Movistar) comes back to Australia in great shape after taking a podium finish in the Tour de Suisse. He has been performing very well this year and is consolidating himself as one of the important riders in stage races after his podium in the Tour de France last year. In today's time trial he was again very good but did not manage to beat Tejay van Garderen. Evans took the 2nd provisional position only 22 seconds behind. This put him very much in the mix for a podium.
The penultimate rider on the road was Levi Leipheimer (HTC). The American is known for his inconsistency in the mountains but the time trials are a different matter. He had not done much this season before the 5th place in the Dauphine and he got another top 10 finish in the Tour de Suisse. However, today was not his best day and, even though he only lost 24 seconds to Tejay van Garderen he was 4th and lost his chances of finishing in the podium. His teammate Andrew Talansky beat him by only 1 second.
The last rider and clear favorite to win the race was Cameron Meyer (Trek). His teammate Tejay van Garderen, who beat him last year, had held on to the lead until Meyer started but it was not a problem for him. The Australian shattered the best times by a massive amount and ended up winning the National Championships with a gap of 1' 54'' ahead of Van Garderen. It was probably the biggest margin between the winner and the second placed rider in a time trial since the World Tour was formed.
Meyer will therefore inherit the National jersey from Van Garderen but he will not be able to wear it given that he is also the World Champion. Tejay van Garderen repeated in the podium but one step below last year, while Cadel Evans proved that he is still in good shape after the Tour de Suisse by grabbing another podium. Another of the happier riders in the finish line was Richie Porte as he finished 6th. The 27 year old got the best result in his not very promising career so far.
