The course starts rather easy with five flat to hilly stages including a prologue and a longer time trial. The overall then will be decided in three tough mountain stages until the sprinters again get their chances on the last stage around Zürich.
Spoiler
Result in 2011
1
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank - Sungard
31h56'37
2
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
+ 1'21
3
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank
+ 1'32
4
Roman Kreuziger
Astana
+ 2'03
5
Michael Rogers
Sky ProCycling
+ 2'05
Favorites
Alberto Contador (Movistar) , Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel)
Denis Menchov (Geox)
Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) , Janez Brajkovic (Liquigas)
A high class start list. Alberto Contador contends to defend his title of last year, runner-up Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez are listed as his main opponents.
Team Liquigas
Jani Brajkovic is our leader, as he's our only better climber here in Switzerland. In top shape, he might be up with the best but as it's his first race in a while, we expect a Top 10. Simone Ponzi aims for a good result in the mass sprints.
Report
Stage 1
Surprising outcome of the prologue: Andy Klöden beats Fabian Cancellara by two seconds. Brajkovic is still looking for his shape and finishes 17th, half a minute off.
1
Andreas Klöden
Team T-Mobile
13'54
2
Fabian Cancellara
Leopard – Trek
+ 2
3
Bradley Wiggins
Sky ProCycling
+ 4
Stage 2
Vanmarcke and Eeckhout succeed with a late attack. The latter is almost swept by the incoming pack while Vanmarcke keeps a 30 seconds gap.
Despite some late attacks, a rather big bunch including most favorites sprints for the win. Overall leader Andreas Klöden again proved to be the strongest and even creates a ten seconds gap to 26 following riders including Janez Brajkovic, who now sits in seventh posistion overall.
After falling back early on the first climb, Davide Cimolai and Jacopo Guarnieri abandoned the race after today's stage.
1
Andreas Klöden
Team T-Mobile
5h12'44
2
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Katusha Team
+ 10
3
Alejandro Valverde
Unicef – Oracle
s.t.
Stage 4
Top favorite Fabian Cancellara disappointed finishing more than a minute behind today's winner, Bradley Wiggins. Andy Klöden continues to convince, keeping his overall lead easily. Janez Brajkovic finished sixth today which is now also his overall posistion.
The first really tough mountain stage was a hard test for many riders. The favorite's group decreased continuously until Alberto Contador set the decisive attack on the last ascent. Although he was caught and overtaken by Igor Anton on the last meters, this move brought him as close as you can get to the overall: He's now within the same time as Klöden, who finished a strong fifth today.
Brajkovic had a bit of a bad day finishing 14th, but he still is in seventh overall, so it looks good for a Top 10 and even the Top 5 are still in reach.
1
Igor Antón
Leopard – Trek
5h26'50
2
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
s.t.
3
Fabio Duarte
Geox – TMC
+ 1'05
…
14
Janez Brajkovic
Liquigas – Cannondale
+ 2'32
Stage 7
The favorites watched each other until Fabio Duarte made his move with 5 kms to go. Contador and Antón were the only ones who could follow but Duarte was too strong today and took the win. Klöden is still going strong but his fourth spot today isn't enough to keep the overall lead, which goes to Contador.
Janez again couldn't keep up with the very front and finished at the end of a larger chasing group. He loses a bit to his direct competitors and falls back to 10th overall.
1
Fabio Duarte
Geox – TMC
5h13'10
2
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
+ 16
3
Igor Antón
Leopard – Trek
s.t.
…
16
Janez Brajkovic
Liquigas – Cannondale
+ 2'44
Stage 8
The decision wasn't made until the last climb. A rather big group entered it and only three riders were able to get away: Alberto Contador celebrates his first stage win closely in front of Igor Anton, who thus jumps on the podium. Fabio Duarte finishes third and kicks Wiggins even from fourth overall.
Brajkovic again finishes in the group just behind the stage winner and keeps his 10th overall.
Alberto Contador could defend his win from last year and underlines his role as the superior stage racer and top favorite for the Tour de France. He was always among the best during the mountains and distanced the likes of Anton or Duarte in the time trials. He'll be hard to beat, especially as it doesn't seem like he reached the top of his game yet.
We aimed for a Top 5-10 and closely achieved the goal. Janez Brajkovic wasn't really competitive in the mountains but could limit his losses and showed a very decent time trial. Considering his shape, that gives us hope for the Tour, where he and Roman Kreuziger will be our duo leadership.
In addition, Simone Ponzi showed on the last stage that he can finish among the best on a high level. Another podium spot at the Tour would be fantastic.
Wow... Klöden seems to be in top shape.
Beating both Cancellara and Wiggins in the prologue and winning stage 3 are very great results for him. Btw, Nice finish by Ponzi in the last stage
@ dev4ever: Spanish and Colombian Conta, Anton and Duarte were clearly the best. But I guess at least Duarte won't be able to perform like that all the way through the Tour as he also rode the Giro...
@ sutty68: I'm not disappointed^^ I can't win every race, even more now on extreme, and that would be boring anyways, wouldn't it?
so, the first race of part two of my season is over. Mediocrely successful, if you ask me. I was disappointed of how bad my shape was, but on the other hand it's also pretty great to see that even under those conditions, I'm still the best young rider in the field.
Regardless of my shape, I feel that I really benefit from racing again:
My development really raises my hopes for a good Vuelta performance. But first of all, there's the Österreich-Rundfahrt coming up!
At the moment, his hill stat is indeed quite low, but e.g. Contador's hill stat is 5 lower than his mountain stat as well, Basso's 4. And Dominik has equally many stars in both hills and mountain, so he won't end up like Duarte, who has 82/75.
Anyway, after a pre-christmas break, the story continues...
The parcours is quite hilly. Two climbs and two downhills favour the alround riders over the pure time trialists.
Spoiler
Road Race
The road race offers a lot of possible outcomes. As the difficulty of the parcours decreases throughout the race and the last hill is quite a bit away from the finish, we could see the sprint of a bigger group of favorites. But you never know – both breakaways or a strong solo attacker might succeed!
Spoiler
Result in 2011
Time Trial
1
Tony Martin
HTC – Highroad
2
Bert Grabsch
HTC – Highroad
3
Linus Gerdemann
Leopard – Trek
4
Markus Fothen
Team NSP
5
Patrick Gretsch
HTC – Highroad
…
19
Dominik Nerz
Liquigas – Cannondale
Road Race
1
Tony Martin
HTC – Highroad
2
Rene Weissinger
Vorarlberg – Corratec
3
Simon Geschke
Skil – Shimano
4
Paul Martens
Rabobank
5
Bert Grabsch
HTC – Highroad
…
34
Dominik Nerz
Liquigas – Cannondale
Favorites
Time Trial
Tony Martin and Andreas Klöden are the huge favorites, especially after their recent performances in France and Switzerland. The likes of Grabsch, Gerdemann or Voigt should fight for the third spot on the podium only.
Road Race
It's hard to determine a real favorite because the race can end up many ways. If we see a sprint from a larger group, the likes of Ciolek or Greipel should be the main favorites, while Voigt, Martens or Klöden are probably the punchiest guys who might try to attack and finish solo.
Team Liquigas
I won't have any chances in the time trial, in my current shape a Top 10 would be a decent result. In the road race, I don't expect much either. It'll just be another great experience.
As said in the preview, a Top 10 would be nice for me. Otherwise, this is just another opportunity to improve my shape.
Live Ticker
13:00:
Punctually, Timo Seubert (NetApp) opens the time trial.
.
13:25:
Very early, one of the top favorites for today, Andreas Klöden, shoots of the ramp. We'll see how he does.
.
13:50:
Klöden passes the first checkpoint, declassifying every other rider so far.
CP 1:24'39
.
14:06:
Bert Grabsch starts the race. He is one of the podium contenders, although his weak hill skills are a handicap today.
.
14:12:
On his way to the second checkpoint, Klöden overtook the two riders in front of him. Looks like a good time.
CP 2:46'33
.
14:27:
And he finishes. This will be the time to beat for the likes of Martin and Voigt.
F:1h02'26
.
14:32:
Grabsch passes the first checkpoint and can already burry his hopes for a podium finish. Fourth time so far.
CP 1:25'55 (+ 1'16)
.
15:02:
Dominik Nerz starts the race. The young gun has no big ambitions today.
.
15:11:
Grabsch comes to the line. Very disappointing result, he finishes behind the likes of Patrick Gretsch and Fabian Wegmann, usually much weaker time trialists.
F:1h5'19 (+ 2'53)
.
15:19:
Jens Voigt starts. Last year, he finished second at the ITT World Championships. Today, a podium should be realistic.
.
15:21:
The last rider, just behind Jens Voigt, is defending champion and top favorite Tony Martin.
.
15:27:
Nerz accelerates towards the first checkpoint. So far, it looks pretty great, he is on the second spot here.
CP 1:25'19 (+ 40)
.
15:30:
Linus Gerdemann sets a decent time. He finishes provisional third.
F: 1h4'38 (+2'12)
.
15:33:
Nerz shows a strong performance on today's biggest climb. LKT's Sebastian Schäfer is already in sight.
.
15:34:
Voigt passes the first checkpoint. He's by far the closest to Klöden, only 11 seconds behind.
CP 1: 24'50 (+ 11)
.
15:35:
Martin lives up to the expectations. On the first checkpoint, he sets the new best time.
CP 1:24'16 (- 22)
.
15:50:
At the second checkpoint, Dominik Nerz overtakes Schäfer. He's keeps his provisional second spot, hopefully he didn't do too much. The descent isn't his strong point.
CP 2: 47'48 (+ 1'15)
.
15:53:
Schäfer is the better descender, he re-overtakes Nerz immediatly.
.
16:07:
Voigt reached Paul Voss, who started just before him. At the second checkpoint, Voigt lost more time on Klöden.
CP 2:47'28 (+ 55)
.
16:08:
And Martin loses time, too! Klöden keeps his lead at that checkpoint.
CP 2:46'39 (+ 6)
.
16:09:
As we assumed: Dominik Nerz lost a whole lot of time on the last part of the race. He falls back to provisional seventh, but that means he could be in the Top 10. Good result!
F: 1h05'38 (+ 3'12)
.
16:14:
Martens was faster than Nerz, who falls back to eigth...
.
16:19:
… but Burghardt and Fothen pass without besting Nerz's time! Only Voigt and Martin to come, Nerz will finish 10th!
.
16:24:
Jens Voigt makes the jump on the podium easily! He expels Patrick Gretsch from place two.
F: 1h03'40 (+ 1'16)
.
16:25:
Now it's time for the fight for the title! Tony Martin comes in with a last acceleration, will it be enough?
.
16:25:
No! He misses the best time by just two seconds! Andreas Klöden managed to keep his extraordinary shape from the Tour de Suisse to gain the national title 2012!
So, that went pretty well! I didn't know the course so I overdid it a bit on the ascents, consequentally I was completely empty on the last flat kilometers. But it was enough nevertheless to complete my personal goal! After last year's 19th, my development is now also visible in the results. That is a great motivation for the road race, too.
