Professional cyclists intending to race in the Tour de France prepare by riding either the Dauphiné Criterium or the longer Tour de Suisse. These seven- and nine-day races give riders a chance to test their form, find their weaknesses, and tune up their bodies for the three-week Tour in July.
Sky’s Bradley Wiggins won the Dauphiné, raising his profile as an overall Tour contender. The Tour de Suisse, which started Saturday, June 11, could present yet another prime challenger.
The Tour de Suisse started with an Individual Time Trial, where each rider races alone against the clock. Leopard Trek’s Fabian Cancellara, generally considered to be the best time-trialer in the world, showed his form Saturday with a stage win.
This is the fifth Tour de Suisse prologue for Cancellara, a native of Switzerland. “I felt extra pressure today because it was my home race, but I like the pressure,” said Cancellara said on the Leopard Trek website. “Both time trials in this race are my main focus, and I have accomplished my first goal with flying colors.”
No one was surprised to see such a performance from Cancellara, who has seven National time trials wins, four World Championships, and an Olympic gold medal. Most people were surprised by the second-place finish of young American rider Tejay Van Garderen of HTC-Highroad, who trailed Cancellara by only 9 seconds.
Van Garderen, only 23, has earned himself a spot on the HTC Tour de France squad already; he might earn himself a Tour de Suisse win as well.
Third was Peter Sagan of Liquigas, even younger at only 21, another 8 seconds back.
Soler Takes Stage Two, Yellow Jersey
Stage Two was a serious climbers’ stage, with an Hors Categorie climb followed by a Cat 1 climb, a brief descent, and an uphill finish.
This stage saw the Schleck brothers of Leopard Trek make their bids for Tour dominance. Frank Schleck, the older at 31, made several strong attacks on the final climbs. Younger brother Andy, 26, showed that he wasn’t yet on form, dropping away from the leaders and finishing 16th—a huge disappointment for the two-time Tour de France runner-up.
Frank Schleck (and teammate Jakob Fuglsang, until the final 5 km) pushed the pace until there were only four other riders left: Lampre’s Damiano Cunego, Rabobank’s Bauke Mollema, Katusha’s Danilo Di Luca, and Movistar’s Juan Mauricio Soler
After his long effort, Schleck couldn’t respond when Soler attacked; Damiano Cunego could, but even the powerful Cunego couldn’t stay with Soler on his second attack with 600 meters (1,970 feet) to go. Soler won the stage and the yellow jersey by 12 seconds.
“I could see that Schleck and Cunego were watching each other and so I took advantage of that,” Soler told CyclingNews.com. “Now I hope to keep the race for a few days.”
Next... Stage Three: Sagan Descends to Win
Stage Three: Sagan Descends to Win, Cunego Into Yellow
Stage Three was another stage for the climbers, with the Cat One Grimselpass followed by the Hors Categorie Grosse Scheidegg, then a very fast descent to the finish.
The race started in pouring rain; luckily the roads dried by the finish because the descent from Grosse Scheidegg decided the day; in the rain, it would have been far too dangerous.
The race started with about 30 riders attacking at kilometer 14. This group sheds riders as the stage progresses, becoming an increasingly select roster of General Classification contenders.
Heading up the Grimselpass, five riders—Jakob Fuglsang, Andy Schleck making up for his poor ride tin Stage Two, Rabobank’s Laurens Ten Dam, Peter Sagan and Vacansoleil’s Wouter Poels—opened a three-minute lead over the rest of the escapees.
About a dozen riders caught the escapees on the descent, not including Juan Mauricio Soler, who plainly wasn’t up to protecting the yellow jersey.
Andy Schleck set a destructive pace up the start of the long (18.5 km (11.5 miles) at an average 7.2 percent grade) ascent up to Grosse Scheidegg.
13.7 km (8.5 miles) from the finish, with about 5 km (3.1 miles) left in the climb, Damiano Cunego made a huge attack from the peloton. Juan Mauricio Soler eventually reacted, but too late; had he stuck to Cunego’s wheel, he might have saved his yellow jersey. Possibly not, as Cunego was in rare climbing form.
The lead group shrank as the climb continued. Schleck finally fell back, exhausted by the pace he had set to serve his teammate Jakob Fuglsang. Shortly before the summit Cunego caught, and immediately passed, the lead group.
Cunego took off down the descent, even steeper than the climb and filled with tight turns and bad pavement, some with water running across them. Cunego was pursued by Peter Sagan and teammate Christiano Salerno. Salerno crashed, but Sagan descended like a hero, catching the Lampre rider with 2.45 km (1.5 miles) left.
Sagan, by far the stronger sprinter, crossed the finish line first, but Cunego had already gained enough time to take over the yellow jersey.
Damiano Cunego holds a 54-second advantage over Juan Mauricio Soler, with Bauke Mollema, Laurens Ten Dam, Tejay Van Garderen, Frank Schleck, Jakob Fuglsang, and Danilo Di Luca all within 90 seconds of the leader. Andy Schleck finished the day 20th overall.
The next two stages will be sprints, followed by some intense climbing stages, another sprint stage, and another time trial. Any of the top 20 riders have a decent shot at victory. A win, or even just a good showing in the Tour de Suisse, could mean a ride in the Tour de France.
