The 2nd stage between Baden and Biel is probably the easist in this Tour de Suisse. 140km short and most of it flat.
It's no surprise that the stage ends in a mass sprint. But the sprint is very weird. Sylvain Chavanel and Fabian Cancellara attack with 25km to go, catch the BOTD and leave them behind. Chavanel is the strongest and he manages to stay in front of the peloton untill 600m to go. The peloton seems to have trouble in setting a high pace, no real trains are formed, and our sprinters aren't strong enough to follow the lead out men.
So Lieuwe Westra decides to make it a long sprint. But when he passes Chavanel, he gets passed by Mark Cavendish, who easily wins the stage. Westra finishes in 2nd, followed by Meersman, Rojas and Galimzyanov.
Word from the DS
Strange final kilometres..... Ending up with a 2nd place between the mighty Cav is great! Well done by Westra.
Edited by dienblad on 19-07-2012 17:16
The 3rd stage from Neuchatel to Lausanne is more difficult. The 163 kilometres feature 3 categorized climbs and an uphill finish in Lausanne.
90km to go
7 riders are present in the BOTD and they have a lead of 7 minutes to the peloton 90km before the finish. Mirenda, Ignatiev, Stybar, D'Aniello, Stannard, Tanner and Nicki Sorensen have found the right way to cooperate under beautiful weather conditions.
1km to go
Apparantly, the 3 haven't read the roadbook and don't know that the last 3km are uphill, or they feel to confident. Because when the road starts to ascend, they're running out of energy, and entering the last km, they get passed by Zdenek Stybar and Antonio D'Aniello.
Finish
D'Aniello is very close to take the stage win, but he has to bow his head for the Czech former cyclocross world champion. Zdenke Stybar takes his first win for the Omega Pharma-team, and even enlarges the party by becoming the new GC-leader.
Philippe Gilbert takes the 4th place at '29, with the peloton at '42. Kelderman finishes in 7th, Schleck in 10th. Some GC-contenders loose valuable time here: Nibali, Nieve, Contador and Fuglsang loose a minute to the peloton, Menchov 1'30 and Velits 2 minutes.
All non-climbers, fear this stage!!!! 234 kilometres between Vevey and Chalet De La Lec, with 4 big clims, and a total of 5761 height metres! The time limit is your enemy today!
186km to go
The mountains await in the 4th stage of the Tour de Suisse. A bad day, and your GC-ambitions will melt as snow for the snow. 8 riders dare to take the challenge and form a very nice BOTD: Andrey Amador (Movistar), Bauke Mollema (BMC), Cyril Dessel (AG2R), Nicki Sorensen (Saxo), Martin Reimer (Sony Ericsson), Luigi Sestili (Liquigas), Yannick Talabardon (Saur) and Johan Vansummeren). The 8 quickly create a huge gap to the peloton, and at the summit of the Les Botequit (14.7km at 9.0%) their margin to the peloton is 8'23 and still growing.
127km to go
The 8 leaders even have enlarged their margin to the peloton to almost 14 minutes at the foot of the 2nd climb of the day, the Col du Lein (10.3km at 9.0%). At this moment, a Sicilian shark attacks out of the peloton and starts his chase to catch the BOTD. Everybody in the peloton is looking at each other: "what is Vincenzo Nibali thinking, doesn't he know how far it is to the finish?"
122km to go
Amador, Mollema and Dessel lead the leading group over the summit of the Col du Lein. Nibali follows at 7'52, what means he has cut back the margin by almost 6 minutes in 5 kilometres!!!
The peloton continues to take it easy and follows at 16'36.... Did you say sixteen and a half minutes? Yes, I did...
66km to go
It has taken Nibbles 60 kilometres of chasing before he joins the 8 leaders. The L'Aminoma (13.5km at 7.4%) has started and also the peloton has start to close the gap, only 9'42 behind at this moment.
62km to go
Nibali doesn't take the time to rest a bit, and goes to the front of the leading group. With the increased pace, the BOTD is teared apart and only 2 are capable following. Andrey Amador is still in Nibbles wheel, whereas also Mollema is getting dropped. The peloton follows at 8'53.
58km to go
It's no surprise to see Nibali cresting the summit solo. Amador got cracked 2km before the summit and now follows at 1'11. Th epeloton has lost ground again: 9'50.
23km to go
After the descend and a flat part, Vincenzo Nibali has arrived at the foot of the last climb of the day, the Col du Senetsch. The 18.1km climb has an average gradient of 7.9% and brings the riders to an altitude of 2238 metres above sea level.
In the last 35 kilometres, the peloton was only capable in decreasing the gap with 1 minute, so Nibali is still 8'40 in front.
13km to go
After 10 kilometres of climbing, Nibali suddenly is looking human again. His gap his melting as snow for the sun and has been decreased to 55 seconds to JoaquÃm RodrÃguez! The first group (Pinot, A. Schleck, Kruijswijk, Brajkovic, Van den Broeck, Caruso, Contador, F. Schleck, Kelderman and T. Martin) follows at 2'02.
11km to go
After 2 more kilometres, Nibali gets caught by a group of 3: RodrÃguez, Kruijswijk and Van den Broeck. The group with Schleck & Kelderman follows at '54 and is starting to close the gap.
9km to go
And they close the gap, so with 9km to go, 11 riders form the leading group.
(oh, I apparantly make a faut with the equipment, as myriders are riding without a frame....).
8km to go
Only 3 kilometres before the riders crest the summit of the Col du Senetsch, and JoaquÃm RodrÃguez attacks again. We don't react, but try to close the gap with a high pace. Schleck is serving as a very luxury domestique for Kelderman and is doing the work here.
5km to go
RodrÃguez gets caught again, and the next one to try is BMC's Jurgen Van den Broeck. The Belgian manages to create a gap and leads Schleck, Kelderman, Kruijswijk and RodrÃguez by 23 seconds at the summit of the Col de Senetsch.
Finish Wilco Kelderman tries to counter at athe summit, and manages to close the gap to Van den Broeck. But it's not enough for the win, as the Belgian climber takes his 2nd win of 2013. 21 seconds behind them, Kruijswijk leads RodrÃguez and Schleck over the finish. Brajkovic follows at 1'04 and Fränk Schleck, Nibali, Caruso, Pinot and Contador at 1'59. 18 riders finish outside the timelimit.
Word from the DS
What a stage, so incredibly tough.... And what an effort by Nibali, amazing! We're very happy with the result. Okay, no stage win, but 2 in the top 5, and a good chance to get a Top 3 in the GC!
Edited by dienblad on 20-07-2012 08:54
