The fourth stage in the Tour de Suisse also has a difficult circuit, but harder that yesterday's. The last 40 kilometers around Trimbach / Olten have no less than 4 climbs, the two categorized are Unter Hauenstein and Salhohe. The last of them is 3 kilometers long averaging more than 7%. The most probable outcome of the stage is a small group sprint.
The wind was the protagonist of the first kilometers of the race today, as it was slowing down the riders. The start of the stage was hard, as the bunch didn't want a huge break to go away. In the end a group of 11 riders went away and had a gap of 4' 45'' halfway through the stage. The main riders in it were Andreas Kloden (HTC), Yoann Offredo (Ag2r), Chris Sutton (Garmin), Geraint Thomas (BMC), Nick Nuyens (Liquigas) and Kenny van Hummel (Rabobank).
The bunch started chasing quite late and was still lost 2 minutes on the break at the top of the first categorized climb, the Unter Hauenstein (37 kilometers to go). Philippe Gilbert did most of the job during the climb but also some riders from Quickstep showed their willingness to make the race harder.
The break group split into pieces in the difficult terrain between the two climbs. Fredrik Kessiakoff eventually left everyone else in the break behind in the climb to Salhohe. As he was close to the top of the climb he had opened a gap of 30 seconds over a group of 4 including Geraint Thomas and Kenny van Hummel. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina increased the pace in the main bunch looking to get some more points in the KoM competition. They were 1' 05'' behind Kessiakoff.
The final kilometer of the climb to Salhohe was chaos in the peloton. After the race settled in the descent a group of 3 riders was chasing Kessiakoff on his bid to take the stage win: Andy Schleck, Marco Pinotti and Stefan Schumacher. They were 45 seconds behind with 9 kilometers to go. Another group of 4 including Peter Stetina and Robert Gesink was 1' 10'' behind and the main bunch, now reduced to less than 90 riders, is 1' 40'' behind Kessiakoff.
Andy Schleck was on his own chasing Kessiakoff after he left the other behind. He was only losing 12 seconds within the last 4 kilometers. However, the bunch is accelerating a lot in this last part of the stage. The gap is only 35 seconds, which means that it could be a close finish.
Andy Schleck got past Fredrik Kessiakoff as they started sprinting, but they have the riders coming from the bunch close behind. They are not the best sprinters of the world, as we can see Michael Albasini, Chris Froome, Robert Kiserlovski or Denis Menchov sprinting. However, given that they have fresher legs they have a good chance of overtaking the guys ahead.
Robert Kiserlovski wins in Trimbach / Olten! That was an amazing sprint from the leader of the race, who takes his third stage win in a row. I am now running out of words to describe what Kiserlovski is doing in this Tour de Suisse. He has been so strong so far that only a bad day in the time trial seems to be potentially on his way to the final win.
Andy Schleck took the second place but surely he thought that he was going to win it. Only in the very last meters of the sprint did Kiserlovski get ahead of him. Michael Albasini, Chris Froome and Denis Menchov completed the top 5 in a stage that was more difficult than initially thought.
The fifth stage in Switzerland takes us East, towards the town of Gansingen. An easier stage today in which the pure sprinters should have some trouble but most of the riders in the peloton should make it to the final sprint. The accumulated height is more than 2.000 meters, so the stage could be a bit tougher than the profile suggests.
Only two riders for the break of the day, once they have already got past the first two categorized climbs of the day. Peter Kennaugh (Garmin) and David Millar (Sky) are 1' 40'' ahead of Alessandro Petacchi (Vacansoleil) and Simon Clarke (HTC), who never could join the leading duo. The bunch is taking things easy halfway through the stage after a very fast start of the race. They are losing 7' 45''.
Robert Gesink leads the bunch over the last categorized climb of the day, the third climb to the Kaistenberg, just after the break was reeled back in. The leader, Robert Kiserlovski, came right behind. With only 16 kilometers to the finish line it looks like the mass sprint will be the way to go. However, the stage was tougher than expected and the toughness will probably weigh on the legs of some sprinters.
Robert Kiserlovski had another idea on the outcome of today's stage. The Croatian can't be more confident this week, as he attacked as they got past the last hill. Only Thibaut Pinot was aware of the attack and both of them have almost 1 minute on the bunch going into the last 4 kilometers of the stage. It looks like the stage win is going to be in the front, as the bunch doesn't seem able to react.
The leading duo reached the final sprint with a big enough gap not to worry about the peloton. Kiserlovski got the lead, as he also wanted to keep the gap as big as possible. However, when Pinot came out of his wheel it wasn't clear that he was strong enough to get past the Lotto rider.
Robert Kiserlovski wins in Gansingen! The Croatian does it again. Clearly most of the riders had focused too much on the Giro and were hoping that the form would carry on to Switzerland. However, Kiserlovski's preparation was specifically suited to shine here. Thibaut Pinot never had a chance to get past him in the final sprint and had to settle for the second place in the stage.
The main bunch arrived 53 seconds behind Kiserlovski, with Damiano Cunego, Andre Greipel and Rein Taaramae completing the top 5. Greipel was the only pure sprinter to show himself in the sprint, as it seems the others got too tired in the previous hills. With that gap the difference to Menchov in the GC grows to 2 minutes, while Pinot takes the 3rd place 2' 33'' behind Kiserlovski.
The sixth is the flattest stage in the Tour de Suisse and maybe we will be able to see a mass sprint and someone whose surname is not Kiserlovski winning. The final circuit around Bischofszell is not very difficult but has a couple of 1 kilometer climbs averaging 6%. However, these are not difficult enough to see anyone being dropped from the main bunch.
The break of the day is on the large side, as there are 10 riders ahead halfway through he stage. The most important riders in there are Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Katusha), Kenny van Hummel (Rabobank), Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Sebastian Langeveld (Vacansoleil) and Lars Bak (Liquigas). The maximum advantage they enjoyed during the stage was a bit over 8 minutes.
14 kilometers to the finish line it looks like the break has the odds oh its side to make it to the finish line, as they have a nice 2 minutes gap on the bunch. Even though Quickstep, Lotto and Discovery tried to reel them back in the lack of sprinting quality in this Tour de Suisse means that no team actually work too hard. It looks that the Tour de Suisse will pass with no mass sprints at all.
Bjorn Leukemans got to the front of the pack in the last categorized climb of the day, the third pass through the Schocherswil. It was not more of a bid not to let the gap grow bigger rather than real chasing. The front group was surprisingly still together as none of the break attempts in front succeeded.
Enrico Gasparotto and Sergey Firsanov opened a small gap before the final sprint for the line in Bischofszell started. As they got into the last kilometer of the stage they barely had a handful of seconds on the rest of the break but it looked enough. Fredrik Kessiakoff is leading the chase ahead of Jonathan Castroviejo.
Enrico Gasparotto wins in Bischofszell! The Italian takes his maiden win in this story by completing a very long break ahead of Sergey Firsanov. This is also the first win of the season for the Astana team. The Kazakhs are having a lackluster performance this season and a stage win will surely calm a bit the moods.
Kanstantsin Sivtsov, Jonathan Castroviejo and Kenny van Hummel completed the top 5 and were awarded the same time as the winners even though a gap could have been given. The story of the stage ends with the fight for the stage, only with the mountain jersey changing hands. Fredrik Kessiakoff got 23 points today, but his chances of an overall win are slim given the amount of points that will be awarded in the eighth and ninth stages.
Three days to the finish of the Tour de Suisse and all the stages remaining will be relevant for th GC. To start with we have a 34 kilometer time trial around the town of Gossau. The route is not completely flat, so it will not benefit the specialists as much as last year's time trial did. However, Robert Kiserlovski should lose some of the gap he is enjoying at the top of the GC.
David Millar (Sky) was the first to start among the potential winners of today's time trial. No one really quick had set a time yet, so the British easily went past the provisional leader, Tom Danielson, with a gap of 41 seconds. Millar has yet to win a time trial this year.
Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) was probably the biggest favorite to take the stage win today, as he took the win in the prologue of the race in Lugano. He cruised through the roads to record a much better time than David Millar: 55' 52'', 22 seconds better that the Sky rider. Very few riders will be able to get close to the time set by the Australian.
However, the joy in house Quickstep didn't last long. Marco Pinotti (BMC) recorded the surprise of the day by slashing two seconds from the best time set by Cameron Meyer. The BMC rider had always been a good time trialist, but had never challenged for the stage win. If he doesn't win today with such a time it is going to be very close.
Chris Froome (HTC) was aiming at recovering quite a few places in the GC today, as many of the riders ahead of him are not very good time trialists. The British completed a very solid stage, setting the third provisional best time only 4 seconds slower than Marco Pinotti. Given the intermediate times of the riders ahead of him he could jump to around the 6th place in the GC.
Frank Schleck (Radioshack) was in damage control mood today. The Luxembourgish is not the best of the time trialists and could only record the 21st provisional time. The 41 seconds lost by him may not sound as too bad to his ears, as he could have lost much more time. The bad side is that he got beaten in the GC by Chris Froome by only 1 second.
Oliver Zaugg (Garmin) is doing the best performance by a Garmin rider this season but the time trial does not play in his favor. The Swiss could only be 28th, 48 seconds behind Pinotti. This will make him lose a couple of places in the GC to Frank Schleck and Chris Froome. However, he still is looking good for a top 10 finish in his home race.
Andy Schleck (HTC) is also not a fan of time trials. He exactly matched the time recorded by Oliver Zaugg and that will be just enough to remain in front of his teammate Chris Froome in the GC. Schleck will be eagerly waiting for the mountain stages, where he is expected to get a podium place if he can keep the form he showed in Verbier.
Thibaut Pinot (Ag2r) is going to have a hard time keeping the podium place he currently occupies. His miseries started today, as he could only set the 35th provisional time 55 seconds behind Pinotti. That will keep him the third place only 2 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck and 5 seconds ahead of Froome.
Denis Menchov (Quickstep) was the only rider left that could threaten the first place that Pinotti held in the stage. The Russian was ahead in the second intermediate point but in the end had to settle for the second place 1 second behind the Italian. Menchov had high hopes on today's time trial but Quickstep will have to settle for the second and third places in the stage.
Robert Kiserlovski (Lotto) knew that he would be losing time but in fact it was a rather good stage for him. The Croatian managed to set the 20th best time and only lost 36 seconds to Marco Pinotti. Therefore, Kiserlovski keeps a very comfortable lead of 1' 26'' on Denis Menchov ahead of the last two stages.
Tomorrow should be fine, as the differences at the top of Arosa should be fairly small. However, on the last day the big climbs are rather far from the finish line and there is always a chance for some far attacks to succeed. Other classifications didn't suffer significant changes today.
Rob Ruijgh has been the last example of the Dutch army that has been dominating the Grand Tours lately. It all started with Pieter Weening in the Giro 2011, Bauke Mollema took the Tour 2012 and Rob Ruijgh just won the Giro 2013 less than 1 month ago. However, not only the fact that he won the Giro is surprising. He did so in a dominant fashion, beating the second place Tejay van Garderen by 4 minutes. Adding to that, he took 3 stages (Cervinia, Alpe di Pampeago and Passo dello Stelvio) and the mountains jersey.
The first time Ruijgh name sounded in the ears of the cycling fans was also in the Giro. By that time the Dutch had been already 1 year and a half without doing much other than taking the mountains jersey in the Paris - Nice. The Giro was visiting Sicily and Ruijgh was able to win atop the Etna after a very long break where he was by far the rider with the best legs. Rabobank had Oscar Freire and Joost van Leijen as leaders at time, but the lack of a clear option for the GC in a Grand Tour gave him the chance to shine.
The very good prograssion that he showed during that year gained him the leading role for the Rabobank team for the Tour 2012. He delivered better than hoped, as he got the final 7th spot and was very close to winning again in a GT.
The future now shines bright for Ruijgh. He could well be one of the best climbers in the years to come if the success doesn't go into his head. The team will probably make sure of that by putting him to work for Hubert Dupont in the Vuelta, where Rabobank stands a good chance to do the double GC win in a Grand Tour. He has one more year in the team, so the French and he could well be Dream team.
The last two days in the Tour de Suisse should decide the outcome of the race, as both are mountainous. However, Robert Kiserlovski seems to have a wide enough gap so that he can secure the overall win. The race arrives in Arosa today, where the differences shouldn't be too big as the total climbing barely goes past the 2.000 meters mark.
A huge group of riders was allowed to go away after an endless first part of the race. It took more than 40 kilometers for this group to take shape. In it were riders like Stefan van Dijk (Vacansoleil), Andreas Kloden (HTC), David Millar (Sky), Stefano Garzelli (Lampre), Philippe Gilbert and Ben Hermans (Discovery). They had a gap of 4 minutes on the bunch when 72 kilometers where remaining.
Lotto and Quickstep set the pace in the main bunch during the whole stage and keep leading as they start the climbing. They still have 29 kilometers to the finish when the first categorized climb of the day, Castiel, starts. However, they haven't quite managed to control the break as they still hold 3' 40'' ahead of the bunch.
Stefano Garzelli leads the break across the top of Castiel ahead of Alberto Contador and Lars Peter Nordhaug as many riders in the break start suffering and losing contact. Behind them Andy Schleck has tried an attack and is 2' 20'' behind the break while the peloton is 2' 50'' behind. The main favorites seem to have no rush today and will be waiting for the last 7 kilometers.
A very hard attack from Hubert Dupont opened the battle with 11 kilometers still remaining. The riders are in the difficult terrain between the two climbs and the French cut the lead of the break to 1' 05''. Behind him a group of 4 riders formed: Cadel Evans, Robert Gesink, Tiago Machado and Jose Rujano were 1' 25' behind while the group of favorites, now down to 60 riders, was 1' 50'' behind the break.
The most important riders waited for the proper climb to start to begin attacking. But once they did they soon caught the early break. Frank and Andy Schleck, Peter Stetina, Hubert Dupont and Robert Gesink all got to the front group at the 5 kilometers to the finish mark. The rest of the favorites are still travelling in the group, 1' 15'' behind.
Frank Schleck, his brother Andy and Peter Stetina seem to be the strongest riders in the race and are slowly pulling away from the rest of the field. The differences are still small but Robert Kiserlovski still hasn't moved. He doesn't seem as strong as he was in the first half of the race and he could lose time for the first time this week.
A terrific attack from Frank Schleck leaves everyone else far behind in the last kilometer of climbing. He reaches the last flat kilometer 45 seconds ahead of Andy and Stetina, 1' 10'' ahead of the group of Menchov and 1' 45'' ahead of the group of the leader. Kiserlovski is looking worse with every kilometer that he rides.
Frank Schleck wins in Arosa! The love affair between Schleck and the Tour de Suisse continues, as he has won a mountain stage in every edition of the race. The Radioshack rider left it all for the last kilometer of climbing and could open a nice gap of 34 seconds in the finish line with his brother Andy and Peter Stetina. 1' 03'' behind Frank came a group including Denis Menchov, Chris Froome, Robert Gesink and Tiago Machado among others.
The biggest loser of the day is undoubtedly the leader, Robert Kiserlovski. The Croatian showed a great weakness today after the exhibition of the first days of the race. He finished in a group led by Juanjo Cobo 2' 05'' behind F. Schleck. This leaves the GC very open for the last day of racing tomorrow, as Menchov is only 24 seconds behind and Schleck is 43 seconds back.
The last stage is by far the hardest in this year's Tour de Suisse. Two twin climbs, the Glaubenbielen and the Glaubenberg, will be the main points of interest but most importantly the top of the second one is placed 40 kilometers to the finish line. The rest of the stage if not really flat, with the road always up towards Sorenberg. Therefore, any rider that wants to recover time in the GC needs to attack far away from the finish line.
The break of 6 riders was already half broken as they climbed the first categorized mountain of the day, Rengg. The most important riders in it are Thomas Voeckler (Movistar), Andreas Kloden (HTC), Peter Kennaugh (Garmin) and Ryder Hesjedal (Liquigas). Meanwhile, the bunch is taking things very easily, as they know the break poses no real threat, and the loss is up to 8 minutes.
The bunch increased the pace as they climbed the Glabubenbielen, but no attacks happened there. This is normal considering that the top of the climb is still 79 kilometers from the finish line. Lotto, Quickstep and Radioshack set the pace as the distance with the break decreased to 5 minutes.
Denis Menchov run into problems in the descent of the Glaubenbielen, as he was caught in a cut of the main bunch. Only around 30 riders remained in front, with only Dupont and himself losing the head wagon. Quickstep is trying to chase but they are already losing more than 1 minute at the start of the climb towards the Glaubenberg. This is the climb that should break the race into pieces, as it is more than 14 kilometers long averaging 7.5%.
George Hincapie attacked from the front group at the start of the climb to the Glaubenberg and opened a good gap. 5 kilometers to the top he is already 1' 30'' ahead of the group of the favorites. Meanwhile, the group of Menchov and Dupont is losing 3' 40''. Robert Kiserlovski looks much better than yesterday and ready to defend his leader's jersey.
The attacks by the main favorites finally arrived as Frank Schleck's pace left everyone else behind in the last kilometers of the Glaubenberg. Only David Lopez and Andy Schleck tried to follow, but they are already 20 seconds behind close to the top. Kiserlovski is losing 1 minute already. Behind them, Denis Menchov left the group he was travelling in and is closing in the group of the leader.
Once the descent from the Glaubenberg finished Frank Schleck reached to George Hincapie and the group of the favorites had reeled back in everyone else. The attacks in that group were continuous, but no one seemed strong enough to pull away from it. This group is losing 1' 05'' to the leading duo with 17 kilometers remaining. Behind them, Menchov didn't get to contact with the group and is losing time.
7 kilometers to the finish line Peter Stetina managed to open a small gap ahead of the favorites group. He is losing 45 seconds to F. Schleck and Hincapie and the group is 1' 10'' behind the leaders. Frank Schleck cannot stop pulling, as he need to keep that gap in order to win the GC of the Tour de Suisse. Hincapie is not giving any relays in front.
Frank Schleck and George Hincapie reach to the final kilometer together and the effort of the Radioshack rider is going to pay off and give him the overall win. Schleck starts sprinting first on the hope that Hincapie had spent too much in the climb to the Glaubenberg and cannot respond.
Frank Schleck wins in Sorenberg! He gets the seconds straight win and the overall win in the Tour de Suisse. George Hincapie had barely been able to follow him in the slight climb towards Sorenberg and settled for the second place in the stage. His teammate Peter Stetina was also able to keep himself ahead of the group of the leader, arriving 1' 03'' behind.
The group of the leader was led by David Lopez 1' 25'' behind the winner. That will give Robert Kiserlovski the second place in the GC 57 seconds behind. The result will give him mixed feelings as he held the yellow jersey for much of the race. Peter Stetina will complete the podium of the race, inheriting the place from Denis Menchov. The Russian finished the stage 3 minutes and a half behind and sunk to the 7th place in the GC.
