Rui Costa set the decisive attack out of a seven-man front group with around ten kilometers remaining in the eighth stage of the Tour de Suisse. The Portuguese rider won with a dozen seconds over teammate José Joaquín Rojas and Maxime Monfort (HTC). Robert Gesink fought of all attacks in the undulating terrain and kept his 29-second in the overall classification.
Costa was well aware that he profited from the great help of Rojas in the end and the two quickly found each other behind the finish for a lengthy hug. "I would like to thank the team, which rode great today," Costa said. "Especially Rojas has been magnificent. I am very content to be able to win in such a high-level race, where a lot of the stars of the peloton ride."
His Australian director, Neil Stephens, was equally happy. "Costa and Rojas understood each other very well. Before, Iván Gutiérrez was already in a break, and in addition to the victory today, Urán conserved his [second] place in the overall in a final that was quite tricky."
The rider in third place overall, Steve Morabito of the American BMC team, was also satisfied that he kept his ranking. "Today was really bad weather at the start and at the end, there were a lot of steep climbs and tricky corners," Morabito said. "The entire team did a good job of keeping me in position and Mathias [Frank] was familiar with the course, so he gave me great information." BMC is having a great race, with Frank keeping his lead in the sprint and mountains classification and Marcus Burghardt defending his points jerseys.
Gesink was pensive after the stage. "It will be difficult tomorrow, but everything is possible." He thinks his biggest opponent is not the second-placed Urán. "Armstrong will be quite dangerous," Gesink said. The Texan sits 55 seconds behind Gesink. In today's stage, the Dutchman did what he had to do to defend his lead. "There were a lot of attacks, but I stayed concentrated. The team did a great job."
A break stays away
After 20km, a group of nine riders went away, gaining a maximum advantage of around two minutes (km 40). The group was too large to let it get away to far and with 100km to go, the gap was reduced to 1'20.
At the feed zone, 13km later, the gap was almost identical, but slightly increased again to 1'45 after the feed. Less than 40km before the finish, Monfort attacked and split the group, with only six other riders following the Belgian. The Cervélo TestTeam did a lot of work for Thor Hushovd behind, but the attacks in the front helped the break to increase the gap to almost three minutes with 30km to go.
Monfort and two Caisse d'Epargne riders, Rui Costa and Jose Rojas, stormed away from the other four break companions. But Lars Peter Nordhaug, Tom Danielson, Sandy Casar and Alessandro Vanotti were chasing behind and managed to catch the trio again 22km from the line.
With 18km to go, Casar went, followed by Rojas. They crossed the finish line, but had to do one final lap. Casar was unable to hold Rojas. The Frenchman was chasing behind, marked by Costa. The others rejoined and no attack really stuck, with Caisse having the advantage of two riders in the selection. It was ten kilometers from the finish when Costa finally managed to get a bit of a gap. His lead was 15 seconds with six km to go and he held on.
Behind, Andy Schleck was unable to put pressure on race leader Robert Gesink. Gesink had one helper still, but at times was forced to respond to attacks himself. The Dutchman kept his cool and the leader's jersey before tomorrow's decisive time trial stage.
Stage results
1. Rui Costa (Caisse d'Epargne)
2. Jose Rojas Gil (Caisse d'Epargne)
3. Maxime Monfort (HTC-Columbia)
4. Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux)
5. Alessandro Vanotti (Liquigas)
6. Lars Peter Nordhaug (Sky)
7. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Transitions)
General classification
1. Robert Gesink (Rabobank)
2. Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) 0'29
3. Steve Morabito (BMC) 0'36