Tactics meeting
Even though we're reaching the highest point of the Tour de Suisse route, Tremola at 2108 meters above sea level, this is not a particularly difficult stage. After Tremola, there's 145km of almost flat terrain, and if a breakaway doesn't go away, we'll probably see a mass sprint.
Today's breakaway was made up by one man, namly Katusha's Russian champion Sergei Ivanov. At most he held a lead of six minutes.
Ivanov didn't last all the way, and was caught with 28km remaining.
GC
1 Benoit Vaugrenard Française des Jeux 13h41'05 2 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 49
3 Anthony Geslin Française des Jeux + 1'06
4 Stuart O'Grady Team Saxo Bank + 1'19
5 Hubert Schwab Quick-Step + 1'22
6 Marco Marcato Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 1'27
7 Fabian Wegmann Team Milram + 1'36
8 Björn Leukemans Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 1'42
9 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 1'52 10 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 1'57
Tactics meeting
It's the first mountain stage of the race, and Vaugrenard in yellow is going to have trouble keeping up on the last climb to the finish. That gives Klöden a good chance to seize the yellow jersey, and that is also our aim for today.
A large breakaway established after the first climb, but it didn't contain any particularly strong riders.
Nevertheless, they had a lead of over 14 minutes when they were on top of the highest climb of the day, 58km before the finish.
Française des Jeux obviously had no plans to defend Vaugrenard's jersey, and when the breakaway had an 18 minutes' advantage with 45km remaining, we had to send our forces to the front and assume responsibility. Luckily, Quick-Step helped us, but it was now impossible to reel in the break. We just had to make sure the lead one of them was getting in the GC would be as small as possible.
When the escapees began the last climb, the deficit had shrinked to 15 minutes, but they now had only 9km left.
Early on the climb, Astana's Alexander Dyachenko attacked the breakaway.
The start of the climb was obviously Astana's launch pad. When the main field eventually got there, Alberto Contador also attacked. Nobody was really able to match his accelration.
Meanwhile, Dyachenko had got himself a lead of 1'30 over the other breakaway riders, and he was approaching the top of the climb.
The gap stayed the same all the way to the line, and the unknown Kazakh won the biggest victory of his carreer. But would he ride in yellow tomorrow?
Contador had danced up the mountain in a fierce tempo, and he had passed a few of the remnants from the breakaway. Still he finished almost 11 minutes behind his teammate Dyachenko, and was 14th on the stage.
The peloton had disintegrated into complete chaos on the last climb, and every man had to ride for himself. Andreas Klöden had gained some time on Contador during the flat part just before the finishing line, and finished 16th, 11'43 behind the stage winner.
Once again Ivanov was in a solo breakaway, with a couple of riders spread out between him and the main field. Ivanov didn't get any significant lead, though.
Today there was some strong crosswinds, and during the last half of the stage, we tried to exploit that to get rid of some highly placed riders. We sent several riders to the front to keep a blistering pace, and were hoping to split the peloton.
The only rider among the top ten who really lost time because of our riding, was 7th placed Emanuelle Bindi from Lampre. He lost a lot of minutes, and finished miles away from the top ten of the GC. Dimitry Kozontchuk(Rabobank) was in a group a bit further ahead, and he also lost some time, but not enough to get him out of the top ten.
Alberto Contador also lost contact with the front part of the peloton for a moment, but unfortunately he got help from Steve Morabito to get back again, and in the end he didn't lose any time. The one we really had hoped would fall off, GC leader Benitez, had sensibly placed himself in the front end of the pack, and stayed there until the finishing line.
The stage ended in a mass sprint among those left in the main field, and it was won by Philippe Gilbert. He just got in front of Jakob Fuglsang after accelrating like a rocket during the last meters.
Today's winner
Results
1 Philippe Gilbert Silence - Lotto 4h28'47
2 Jakob Fuglsang Team Saxo Bank + 0
3 Stijn Devolder Quick-Step + 0
4 Alexander Efimkin AG2R La Mondiale + 0
5 Matthew Lloyd Silence - Lotto + 0
6 Markus Fothen Team Milram + 0
7 Hubert Schwab Quick-Step + 0 8 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 0
9 Jussi Veikkanen Française des Jeux + 0 10 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 0
Tactics meeting
We're at the penultimate road race stage in Switzerland, and we are in a hurry to gain time on Benitez. We hope he will struggle with the last climb towards the finish, and hopefully lose some time.
A large band of escapees had a lead of six minutes at most. Here, they're lead by Mazzanti (Katusha), followed by Pozzato. Strong riders like Wegmann and Vaugrenard were also in the break.
With 12km remaining, in the beginning of the climb, Philippe Gilbert attacked from the peloton. The breakaway still held a solid lead of three minutes.
They were going slowly though, and Gilbert had almost reached them. The main field was also closing in.
Belgian Gilbert plowed straight through the tired breakaway riders, but Mazzanti and Vaugrenard still had som juice left, and held on to the lead.
Vaugrenard soon cracked, and only Mazzanti was left in the front while Gilbert was rapidly closing in.
Luca Mazzanti held on, and won the stage for Katusha in front of Philippe Gilbert.
The rest of the breakaway finished 19 seconds later, and they had a gap of 31 seconds down to the peloton.
In other bad news, George Hincapie crashed and broke his wrist. Our American had to abandon, and could be out as long as until August. Really sad for Hincapie, who was meant to be a part of our Tour de France team.
Yeah, I know. The most annoying part is that Benitez is totally impossible to break. Reminds me of Rasmussen in the Tour '07 TT. The yellow jersey gives people superhuman strength.
Tactics meeting
Andreas Klöden's chances for the overall win are fading fast. This is the last possibility to shorten Benitez' advantage. Even though the Spaniard held on yesterday, he will most definitely have trouble doing the same today. The question is, do we gain enough time for Andreas to overtake him in the TT tomorrow? Anyway, we're doing our best to crack the yellow jersey today.
The break of the day was still in front at the bottom of the last climb. Mauricio Soler was in the break, but he doesn't seem to be in good shape at the moment.
Leipheimer, Armstrong and Klöden set the pace up the mountain, and the pack was steadily shrinking. Unfortunately, the stubborn Benitez was still there when we were halfway to the top.
The breakaway still kept a small lead, with Jelle Vanendert of Silence - Lotto at the front.
The peloton was just about to catch the break with 6km remaining, when John Gadret attacked.
Gadret soon passed all the escapees except Vanendert, and was also closing in on the Belgian.
With the finish line approaching, Andreas Klöden and Kanstantsin Siutsou went hunting for Gadret and Vanendert.
The two leaders held on, though, and John Gadret of AG2R crossed the line in first place.
Siutsou and Klöden sprintet over the line 26 seconds later, but unfortunately they didn't get a time gap to the pack where Benitez was. It's incredible how the yellow jersey has managed to ride with the best climbers two days in a row. He hasn't lost a single second to Klöden since the stage where he took the overall lead. Andreas can surely not take back 6'20 in the time trial tomorrow.
Today's winner
Results
1 John Gadret AG2R La Mondiale 4h35'17
2 Jelle Vanendert Silence - Lotto + 0
3 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team Columbia - High Road + 26 4 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 26
5 Stijn Devolder Quick-Step + 26
6 Stuart O'Grady Team Saxo Bank + 26
7 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 26
8 Sergei Ivanov Team Katusha + 26
9 Jurgen Van Den Broeck Silence - Lotto + 26
10 Jakob Fuglsang Team Saxo Bank + 26
Tactics meeting
Tour de Suisse ends with a 40km time trial in the capital. The course is flat except the last kilometer before the finishing line, which is quite steep. We expect Armstrong, Leipheimer and Klöden to cement a place in the GC top ten today, and we have a tiny hope of Andreas Klöden stealing the overall win. It all depends on Benitez' time trial, and also Siutsou, who has a chance to win as well. The latter is four and a half minute in front of Klöden, and Siutsou is a slightly better time trialist than Benitez, who's 1'51 in front of him. Both are miles away from the TT skills of our riders, though.
Columbia has a thing for riding good time trials in Switzerland. Now it was Michael Rogers who set an early best time.
Lance Armstrong rode in to a provisional 2nd place, and had probably secured a top ten spot in the GC.
Levi Leipheimer dominated this time trial. He rode unbelievably fast, and slaughtered Rogers' time. Levi was 45 seconds faster than the Australian of Team Columbia.
Alberto Contador, who has shown some signs of weakness earlier in the race, put in a good performance. The Spaniard beat Rogers, and finished 2nd.
Then it was time for Andreas Klöden. He had to ride the time trial of his life if he was to stand any chance of overtaking Benitez. Andreas was a little disappointing today, finishing 4th, circa one minute behind Leipheimer. It would be exciting to see how Benitez did.
Results 1 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel 52'35
2 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 34
3 Michael Rogers Team Columbia - High Road + 45 4 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 1'02
5 Lance Armstrong Discovery Channel + 1'10
6 Stijn Devolder Quick-Step + 1'14
7 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 1'15
8 Bert Grabsch Team Columbia - High Road + 1'15
9 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 1'25
10 Svein Tuft Garmin - Slipstream + 1'31
It was a strange Tour de Suisse, which was affected by a little bit of panic on the last stages, following the monster breakaway on stage five. Our achievments are disappointing. A stage win, a podium finish overall and a points jersey was far below our expectations.
We just have to forget about the Tour de Suisse, and look forward to the biggest happening of the season, namely the Tour de France. One positive to take with us from Switzerland is that our Tour captains seem to be in great shape, and that our strongest rival, Alberto Contador, looks like he's not quite there yet in terms of form. It will be tremendously exciting and a lot of fun when the best stage racers in the world clash together in France. Stay tuned!
That's a good idea! He's Spanish, he's a Fuji-Servetto rider, he out-performed some of the best riders in the world... He certainly ticks all the boxes for a true doper
