Tour de Suisse

Stage 4:  Schwarzenburg to Wettingen, 192.2km/119mi

By Cathy Mehl

A crash in the closing sprint brought down many of the top fast men, leaving the chaotic win to Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) for Tuesday’s stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse.  With many twists, turns and a headwind facing the 157 riders as they approached the finish in Wettingen, Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) and Sunday’s stage winner Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo Test Team) both went for the same line in the middle of the course, touched wheels and down they went, taking just about everyone else with them, including Milram’s Gerald Ciolek with Tom Boonen (Quick Step) unable to avoid driving over the top of Cavendish.  It was total carnage on course with riders and bikes bouncing and flying up in the air, although it appeared that everyone was eventually able to get up while an ambulance stood by to provide medical aid. 

Team RadioShack riders were not involved in the chaos, although Yaroslav Popovych and Jason McCartney were both caught up in an earlier accident with 28km to go.  Popo ended up with a bruised left arm and shoulder while JMac had broken bike parts to deal with.  Everyone is fine to continue racing on Wednesday.

“It was a dangerous final but we were able to avoid the crash at the end.  That’s important," said Team Manager Johan Bruyneel.  "The pace of the race was slow.  You know that when there is one guy off the front.  Everybody knew it would be a bunch sprint.  The message was ‘Stay out of trouble’.  We’ll just have to follow up on Popo.”

It was a basically flat journey for much of the day with Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil) embarking on a solo breakaway early in the stage.  He built up a nine-minute gap to the main field which was controlled by HTC-Columbia for race leader Tony Martin.  Once he was reeled back with 24km to go, attacks came in rapid succession, with the strongest effort put up by Ryder Hesejdal (Garmin) at 18km to go.  He, too, was brought back and the teams of the sprinters ramped up the speed as they headed for Wettingen.   With less than 3km to go Greg Van Avermaet (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and then Allan Davis (Astana) both tried last minutes attacks, but the sprinters were determined to have their day.  A sprint ensued but the crash took the joy out of the victory and left many scrambling to pick up the pieces on a difficult day.

The race lead remained with Martin who holds one second over Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank). 

There are still five days of exciting racing before the Tour de Suisse ends on Sunday.  Tomorrow’s stage is 172.5km from Wettingen to Frutigen on a day of more up and down with a final category 3 climb with 8km to go – this could be a jumping off point for a rider hoping to earn a stage win.

Team Note:  Where was Eki today?  Our favorite Russian flew to Moscow for Wednesday’s voting to elect a new president of the Russian Cycling Federation.  Ekimov is one of two candidates for the position and we can think of no one better to raise the profile of cycling in Russia than our own ‘Cyclist of the Century’ and we wish him well in the election tomorrow.

Beyond the Finish Line: The Order of Cistercians is a Catholic religious order of enclosed monks and nuns. They are sometimes also called the White Monks, in reference to the color of the habit, over which a black scapular or apron is sometimes worn. The emphasis of Cistercian life is on manual labor and self-sufficiency, and many abbeys have traditionally supported themselves through activities such as agriculture and brewing ales.  The former Cistercian abbey near Wittingen is listed as Swiss heritage site of significance.

Top Ten Results

1              Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini  4:57:33                   

2              Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank                     

3              Marco Marcato (Ita) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                             

4              Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                      

5              Robbie Mcewen (Aus) Team Katusha                      

6              Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Professional Cycling Team                            

7              Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini                       

8              Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank                               

9              Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team Radioshack                                 

10            Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step

Team RadioShack Results

35           Lance Armstrong (USA)

47           Gregory Rast (Swi)

87           Levi Leipheimer (USA)

125         Dimitri Muravyev (Kaz) 0:02:32                 

129         Gert Steegmans (Bel)  0:03:17

151         Jason Mccartney (USA)   0:08:38                                 

152         Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

General Classification after Stage 4

1              Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia               14:35:37                

2              Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank                0:00:01  

3              Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team    0:00:09  

4              Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne   0:00:10  

5              Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step               0:00:11  

6              Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team                                 

7              Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank       0:00:13  

8              Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank   0:00:14  

9              Nicolas Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi    0:00:15  

10            Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank              0:00:17

Team RadioShack on General Classification

13           Levi Leipheimer (USA) 0:00:19

22           Lance Armstrong (USA)  0:00:30

31           Andreas Klöden (Ger)  0:00:45

114         Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 0:14:23

130         Gert Steegmans (Bel)   0:20:29 

141         Jason McCartney (USA)                0:21:55                   

142         Gregory Rast (Swi)   0:21:58

143         Dimitri Muravyev (Kaz)   0:21:59                               

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson