Thrilling end to mountain stage after serious injury to Soler overshadows the start
Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) won the hardest stage of the Tour de Suisse so far, at the top of Malbun, above Triesenberg in the tiny Principality of Liechtenstein. The 23-year-old Dutchman escaped a very select group of favourites with just a few kilometres of the steep climb to go and rode solo all the way to the finish. Levi Leipheimer finished in second place, nine seconds behind Kruijswijk, with race leader Damiano Cunego third, another eight seconds behind.
"In the end it was man against man, "said Kruijswijk after the stage. “I came to Cunego and could pull away from him. The last kilometre was the toughest; I gave everything and stood firm. I rode a good Giro and hoped with my fitness right here the day would come.
“I am very happy with my first win as a pro.”
After two days for the sprinters, the Tour de Suisse hit the high mountains again, crossing the border into Liechtenstein for what was to be the toughest finish in the race. The 157.7km stage would take in two 3rd category climbs in its second half, before the steep ascent of the Malbun, with gradients of up to 15%.
The early part of the stage though, was marred by a serious crash to former race leader Juan Maricio Soler (Movistar), who was airlifted to hospital with a suspected fractured skull.
Attacks from the gun but race is neutralised after Soler’s crash
Almost as soon as the stage left the start in Tobel-Tägerschen, a seven-man break got away. The group was made up of Mads Christensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard), Damiano Caruso and Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale), Scott Stewart (Team Type 1-Sanofi), Alexander Gottfried (NetApp), Martin Elmiger (AG2R La Mondiale), and Pavel Brutt (Katusha); they were soon joined by Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) but they were only able to get a few seconds clear of the peloton, with Team Sky leading the chase.
After 13km though, disaster struck the peloton as Soler crashed badly. The Colombian, who had briefly led the race after his victory in stage two, and who started the day in second place, just 54 seconds behind current leader Damiano Cunego, was airlifted to hospital with a suspected fractured skull.
Soon after Soler’s crash and, soon afterwards, the breakaway riders were back within the fold of the peloton; a number of riders, including Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Cannondale) tried to get away, but to no avail.
There followed a period where the race was neutralised as the peloton as the riders waited for news about Soler’s condition. The race resumed after 10km, with 110km remaining, and Elmiger was the first to try and get away again, but the Swiss champion wasn’t able to get far.
The race is back on and it’s Chavanel on the attack again
After 75km though, as the peloton approached the midpoint of the stage and the feedzone, Unsausti Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Angel Madrazo (Movistar) and perennial attacker Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) got away.
Cunego’s Lampre-ISD team was leading the peloton and, while it allowed the trio to get away, it kept up a steady tempo and prevented the gap from growing too quickly. As they approached the top of the 3rd category Kerenzerberg with 64km to go though, the three riders led by almost 4’30”
As the peloton began to accelerate on the flat roads on the approach to the next climb, the gap began to come down slowly. Progress was interrupted slightly by crashes towards the rear of the peloton though; firstly involving a number of members of Euskaltel-Euskadi, then a few kilometres later another involved much of the BMC Racing team.
As the peloton crossed the town of Maienfeld with just over 23km to go, Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1-Sanofi) attacked; Leopard Trek was on the front at this point and let him go, but he couldn’t sustain his attack and drifted back to the peloton again.
Leopard Trek is in hot pursuit as crashes delay some favourites
At the top of the 3rd category Luzisteig, with 22km to go, the three leaders were just 2’39” ahead. With the peloton crossing the border into Liechtenstein, a group containing Johan Tschopp and Matthias Frank (both BMC Racing), who’d been brought down in the previous crash, struggling to rejoin the back of the peloton.
With 12km to go, as the final climb began, Chavanel was dropped by his two Spanish companions, with Madrazo looking the stronger as they rode away from the Frenchman. The pace set by Leopard Trek on the front of the peloton saw a number of riders dropping off the back with the climb barely begun; World champion Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo), the winner of stage four, was among the first to go.
Surprisingly Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) was another relatively early casualty of his team’s relentless pace.
With the front pair reaching the final 10km Izagirre set off alone, leaving Madrazo behind. A little under a minute behind them Chavanel was caught by the front group, which was now down to less than ten riders. Present in the line were Fränk Schleck, Jakob Fuglsang and Maxime Monfort (all Leopard Trek), were Cunego, Laurens Ten Dam, Bauke Mollema and Steven Kruijswijk (all Rabobank), Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), Danilo Di Luca and Gaimpaolo Caruso (both Katusha), Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo).
A very select group is reeling in the break
With 8.5km to go the group of leaders caught and dropped Madrazo, leaving just Izagirre up the road; the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider still had a minute’s lead, but the toughest part of the climb was to come.
Monfort was continuing to set the pace as they slowly pulled back Izagirre; meanwhile, behind them, Frank was slowly coming up; the BMC Racing rider joined the back of the string with just under 6km remaining, just as Di Luca was dropped; Izagirre was now less than 30 seconds clear.
With 5km to go the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider was caught and, unlike Madrazo, he managed to stay with the group of favourites before dropping back.
Monfort pulled off the front and drifted back along the line, leaving Fuglsang to continue to set the pace.
Disaster struck for Danielson; just as the group was about to enter a long tunnel with just over 4km to go his chain came off. The American struggled to put it back on, with the help of a team mechanic, but had lost the group.
Cunego lays down the law but Kruijswijk gets away
Mollema made a brief move, but Cunego upped the pace as the group exited the tunnel, with just over 3km to go; a number of riders were dropped, including Ten Dam and Van Garderen, but this was the moment that Kruiswijk chose to launch his attack. Nobody followed the young Dutchman and he quickly pulled out a gap of 16 seconds over the rest.
Since Kruijswijk started the day two minutes behind Cunego, the Italian was leading the chase, although he was making no real effort to pull him back. Leipheimer was sat on Cunego’s wheel as he rode a strong tempo, but made little progress on the Dutchman. Caruso had initially been dropped by Cunego’s acceleration, but tried to jump across to the two of them inside the final two kilometres.
Into the final kilometre Kruijswijk was well clear of the rest, while behind him, Leipheimer jumped past Cunego. The American had very little chance of catching up with the lone Dutchman with so little distance to the finish, but he was clearly intent in taking a few seconds out of the Italian in the overall classification.
Kruijswijk had time to sit up and celebrate his first ever professional victory; Leipheimer and Cunego were not far behind the Dutchman, with the rest of the favourites group trickling over behind them.
The small gap to the Italian, plus some bonus seconds on the line, means that Kruijswijk and Leipheimer edge a little closer to Cunego in the overall classification; Cunego put time into the rest of his rivals though, and now leads Mollema by 1’23”, with Kruijswijk now just 1’36” down in third place.
"What a tough climb, with high speed in the first part, it was not so simple to face it,” said Cunego. “I think I put in a quite good performance, since I increased the gap over my immediate followers.
“Rabobank had the advantage of relying on three athletes, so I decided to focus my attention on Mollema. When he attacked, I chased him and then I tried to counter attack, paying attention on pedalling smoothly. My action soon ended and so I kept my pace, but Leipheimer was on a very good day.
“A thought for Soler,” he added, “who was very unlucky. I hope he'll be able to get well soon."