Slovakian road champion beats local favourite Fabian Cancellara in short hilly test
Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) denied the Swiss crowds a home victory as he took the opening 7.3km stage one time trial of the Tour de Suisse, in the city of Lugano. The Slovakian road champion was only third at the three kilometre checkpoint, near the top of the mid-stage climb, but descended quicker than most to push Swiss four-time World time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) off the top.
Sagan’s winning time of 9’43” was four seconds faster than that of Cancellara, whose performance had finally pushed Sagan’s Liquigas-Cannondale teammate, neo-pro Moreno Moser out of first place, having been posted in the first hour of the stage.
“I'm certainly not a time triallist,” said Sagan. “But over short distances, similar to a prologue, I can maximise my power.
On an identical course as tackled in the 2011 race, the Slovakian road champion was 15 seconds faster than he had been the previous year, which meant he could finish ahead of Cancellara, who was six seconds slower.
“It was a technical course and I studied it carefully in the morning,” he explained. “You needed to push and sprint, I enjoyed it and felt comfortable. I'm really happy right now, with everything going well. It's a great morale boost, just what I need to continue my path towards the Tour de France.
“Now I will concentrate on the next stages,” he added. “Those in the mountains to work hard and improve in strength; the others to help the team achieve more success.”
A less than conventional opening time trial
At just 7.3km in length, the Lausanne course qualified to be called prologue, rather than stage one; a climb in the mid part however, which topped out at 411 metres high after 3.2km, meant that this was anything but a typical prologue stage.
Spidertech p/b C10‘s Will Routley was the first rider to start, in what was the Canadian team’s biggest ever race, and stopped the clock in 11’30”. He was immediately overtaken by Team Type 1-Sanofi’s Daniele Colli however, who lowered the best time to 11’01”. Saxo Bank’s Chris Anker Sørensen soon became the first rider to go below eleven minutes though, slashing another 28 seconds off Colli’s time to set 10’33”.
Sørensen’s time was repeatedly beaten by the riders that followed however - including Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky), former Swiss champion Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-Sanofi) and Maxime Monfort (RadioShack-Nissan) - then Swiss favourite Martin Elmiger (AG2R La Mondiale) went below ten minutes for the first time, with 9’54”. He himself was only on the top for a few minutes however, as Moser - who’d crossed the 3km check in 5’11” - went four seconds faster at the finish, with 9’50”.
Tom-Jelte Slagter (Rabobank) went into provisional third place, with 10’03”, but the ten minute mark was proving a barrier to all but Moser and Elmiger for now.
Keen to prove a point after his much discussed withdrawal from the previous month’s Giro d’Italia, Fränk Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) almost hit a traffic island on the descent to the finish as he raced into the finish, and stopped the clock in a respectable 10’19”.
Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) meanwhile, who had enjoyed a more successful Giro, went into provisional third with 10’01”, but still couldn’t quite join the leading two under ten minutes. Soon afterwards Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan), who’d missed the Giro through injury, went best of all the overall contenders so far with 10’05” to go into fifth.
Finally, Astana’s Frederik Kessiakoff became the third rider to break the ten minute barrier, slotting into provisional third with 9’58”.
Cancellara is on the road but he’s not the first one up the hill
Big favourite Cancellara was only twelfth at the top of the climb, nine seconds down on Moser. The former World champion almost hit the same traffic island as teammate Schleck had done in his haste to get down the descent though, and, as he sprinted across the line, he finally knocked Moser off the top with 9’47”.
Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) had been second after three kilometres, just three seconds down on Moser, and six up on Cancellara, while Sagan was just a few hundredths of a second behind the Orica-GreenEdge rider. Albasini was no match for Cancellara’s descending though, and crossed the line in provisional fifth in ten minutes dead.
While never looking like taking the lead, Roman Kreuziger (Astana) - who had had a disappointing Giro, despite winning one of its hardest stages - crossed the line in 10’02”; going into provisional seventh, and the best of the top overall contenders so far.
Sagan was displaying the same fearless descending that he had shown on the way down the Grosse Scheidegg in the previous year’s race and, although he was two seconds slower than Cancellara on the way down, the fact that he had been six seconds quicker than the local man on the way up made the difference. The rider that won five of the eight stages of the recent Tour of California brought his sprint into play in the final metres, and reached the line in 9’43” to deny the home favourite his victory.
The final rider to start was 2011 race winner Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), who only recently recovered from a fractured fibula, and he crossed the line in 57th place, with 10’24”.