Brief Recap
Mathias Frank might have spent the majority of the week in yellow, but Rui Costa’s final day victory to take the jersey from the Swiss rider came with an air of inevitability. After Cameron Meyer won a whacky opening time trial of just 8.1 kilometers in which conditions changed dramatically over the course of the afternoon, Mathias Frank took the lead in the third stage after back to back days of climbing (though Meyer, to his credit, never gave up his pursuit of GC). Over the next few days of flats and gentle hills, Costa was always lurking, watching sprinters and rouleurs racking up the points and waiting for his moment. In the race’s seventh and queen stage, Costa mastered a selective climb and won the day with Bauke Mollema and Tejay van Garderen in tow. By the end of the following and penultimate stage, Frank’s lead on GC had dwindled to just 13 seconds over Costa, and with a difficult time trial to cap off the race, it was clearly going to be too much to ask of Frank to hold onto the yellow jersey. He finished a disappointing 19th in the time trial. Meanwhile, Costa dominated the course, finishing 21 seconds ahead of Tanel Kangert and 29 seconds ahead of Bauke Mollema, and sliding easily into the overall win.
Peter Sagan took the points classification after two impressive stage wins, first managing to hang on to the group of GC contenders over a tough climb in the race’s third stage and then outsprinting Daniele Bennati in the eighth stage.
The final general classification standings looked like this:
1. Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Por) Movistar Team | 31:08:11
2. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Blanco Pro Cycling Team | +0:01:02
3. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff | +0:01:10
4. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ | +0:01:26
5. Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team | +0:01:43
6. Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team | +0:01:51
7. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team | +0:02:23
8. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp | +0:02:42
9. Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha | +0:02:42
10. Cameron Meyer (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge | +0:03:44
Takeaways
While their respective teammates were not living up to expectiations at the Critérium du Dauphiné (this would be a reference to Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde and Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador), Rui Costa and Roman Kreuziger showed strong form in Switzerland. Costa was a favorite coming into the race after winning last year, and this year he was head and shoulders above the rest, finishing with more than a minute’s lead over Bauke Mollema. His performance in the final time trial was even more impressive than anyone expected. With a podium finish in Romandie and now this at the Tour de Suisse, Costa’s confidence has to be pretty high heading into the Tour de France, so it will be interesting to see how Movistar handles their trio of powerful mountaineers (along with Valverde and Costa, Pais Vasco winner Nairo Quintana makes three) in the Pyrenees and Alps.
Bauke Mollema’s terrific week in Switzerland, capped off with a stage win and second overall, earned him the nod as team leader over Giro dropout Robert Gesink in the upcoming Tour de France. After a slower-than-hoped-for experience in the first day’s strange time trial, Mollema came out fighting the next day, soloing to the stage victory and beginning a tough climb up the leaderboard that ultimately put him onto the podium. For Blanco (which will be Team Belkin by the end of the month), who has seen a lot of underperforming lately, this kind of grit is a welcome sight. Blanco/Belkin will be sending a team composed almost solely of GC contenders and domestiques to France, and Mollema has proven himself a worthy leader.
American Tejay van Garderen and Irishman Dan Martin finished one before the other, and both left Switzerland with question marks. Neither had a good opening time trial day, but Fabian Cancellara couldn’t even figure that stage out. When Frank took the leader’s jersey, van Garderen was happy to play lieutenenant for a little while in the former’s home tour. Meanwhile, Martin’s team went from strong to mediocre when 2012 Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal sustained hospitalization-level injuries in a bad stage 3 crash and was forced to pull out. Both riders managed to hang within striking distance of the podium over the next few days, but despite an uphill final day that suited both of them, Martin and van Garderen couldn’t make up any ground in the time trial either. As a favorite going into the race, van Garderen will be disappointed, but he generally hung on when the road went up and it’s tough to say how much of his time deficit to the leaders was due to his support of Frank. Martin will probably be less disappointed, managing a top 10 finish in his first WorldTour race since his Monument win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege in April, and without Ryder Hesjedal. Hesjedal’s injuries apparently were not too serious, but there is no word yet on whether he will be good to go for the Tour. If he is, Garmin will take a strong team to France with Talansky, Martin and Hesjedal (and likely Farrar for stage wins).
Speaking of stage wins, Peter Sagan did what he does best, wowing everyone with a pair of gutsy victories and winning the points jersey commandingly. There is no question of his being on form for France, and he showed his versatility more than ever with a win in the mountains of Switzerland. It will be tough for Cavendish, Griepel and co. to contend for green with a guy who can win stages with all but the steepest climbs. Arnaud Démare had an impressive week as well, notching a win in stage 4 and coming in third on stage 5. At just 21, he’s an exciting up-and-comer for FDJ.
FDJ’s other exciting up-and-comer managed a 4th overall. Thibaut Pinot has to feel good about that display heading into the biggest competition on everyone’s calendar, which happens to be a home race for Pinot and his team.
Simon Špilak finished in the top 10, but VeloHuman tipped him as a major podium contender—his 9th place is a bit of a disappointment. Katusha will also have been disappointed by Joaquim Rodriguez’s uninspiring Dauphiné. Fortunately, Dani Moreno picked up the slack with a podium finish there, but the team will be looking for the other two to show early in the Tour that they are, in fact, in shape this summer.
Katusha will be thrilled, however, with Alexander Kristoff, who picked up his first WorldTour win in the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse, out-sprinting guys like Sagan, Démare, and Matt Goss. At just 25, Kristoff will carry Katusha’s flat stage hopes in the Tour.
Hats off to Cameron Meyer, who won the opening time trial and tried to hang on as long as he could despite not being as strong a climber as the other GC guys. He fell out of the top 10 after stage 4 but fought to get back in, and ended the race in a respectable 10th place. It’s not easy to go from the track to a top 10 in Switzerland, and Orica-GreenEdge will be looking for more from him in the Tour in case Matthew Goss continues to ride without results.
-Dane Cash
Photo by Bruno Hotz.