Tour de Suisse

Stage 3:  Sierre to Schwarzenburg, 196.6km/122mi

By Cathy Mehl

At the start of the day race leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) held only one second over HTC-Columbia’s Tony Martin.  By the end of the day their positions were reversed, with Martin in yellow and the world time trial champion Cancellara looking at a one-second deficit.  But Cancellara still had plenty to celebrate with teammate Frank Schleck taking the stage win from a strong late-race attack. 

Team RadioShack contributed to the efforts at the front of the peloton throughout the day and kept Levi Leipheimer and  Lance Armstrong safe on the stage.  Andreas Klöden crashed into a car after coming back from a flat tire but he powered on and didn’t lose too much time, although he did tweet that he was tired from the big effort.

“Lance stayed in the front,” said Team Manager Johan Bruyneel after the race.  “His level is good but we will only be able to say at the end how his condition is.  This was a pretty intense stage.  We avoided risks, like in the prologue and compared our condition to others.  From what I’ve seen so far there are a few a bit better than us.  We’re going to take this race as a serious 9-day effort and make sure we finish it strong.  It is Tour preparation with a lot of long climbing. The bad weather is of course not good but we don’t want to stress on that too much in the race.  Just be in the front near the final.  We’ll leave the development of the race to other teams right now,” Bruyneel concluded.

While the early part of the course was basically flat, the last half was a lumpy affair on the way to Schwarzenburg.  A break of three riders went away early and quickly established a solid gap of more than 14 minutes. Saxo Bank put in some work to protect the race lead of Cancellara, but expended only so much effort knowing the final climbs would be tough for the world champion. 

Attacks came from the field as the gap began to plummet.  By 30km to go the break was holding only 1:16 and the main field was in full cry.  Gaps opened up immediately and the yellow jersey was in trouble before being paced back by teammate Andy Schleck.  The strongest attack came from HTC-Columbia’s Swiss rider Albasini, but a determined peloton brought him back as well.  Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) also tried to go but it was all together at the start of the last climb.  Frank Schleck bolted from the group with just over 1km to go and gave it full gas, sprinting into the finish just ahead of Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d’Epargne) and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank). 

Six stages remain to ride in the Tour de Suisse.  Tomorrow’s stage is 192.2km/119mi from Schwarzenburg to Wettingen and a good day for the sprinters. 

Beyond the Finish Line:  Walking paths have long been popular in Switzerland.  In documents of 1385, the old path Schwarzenburg to Fribourg is mentioned as “Fryburgstrass”. In medieval times, there was a ford and footbridge across the Sense near the Torenöli. It was a very steep road and the beasts that pulled the carts had to ford the wild Sense, while the pedestrians could use a wobbly footbridge, liable to be swept away by raging floods in a thunderstorm.  The modern path leaves near the train station, which sounds much safer.

Top Ten Results

1              Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank       5:02:21                   

2              Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne                    

3              Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank              0:00:03  

4              Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team                                 

5              Matteo Carrara (Ita) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team                             

6              Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank                       

7              Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                                  

8              Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team                     

9              Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale                       

10            Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia

Team RadioShack Results

14           Levi Leipheimer (USA)  0:00:07                    

15           Lance Armstrong (USA)

33           Andreas Kloden (Ger)  0:00:19

104         Gregory Rast (Swi) 0:10:00

126         Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 0:10:05

128         Gert Steegmans (Bel)

133         Dimitri Muravyev (Kaz)

137         Jason McCartney (USA)

General Classification after Stage 3

1              Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia                                

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

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

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

5              Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick Step                                

6              Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank                        

7              Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank                    

8              Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team                                 

9              Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                     

10            Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank

More results when available

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson