Eventual stage winner, Grégory Rast (Radioshack-Leopard) leads the four man on the road between Leuggern to Meilen on Tour de Suisse stage 6 today
By Gavin McLoughlin
Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin preserved their places in the overall standings on stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse today, Thursday.
On a day where most opted to conserve their energy in anticipation of tomorrow’s crucial mountain-top finish, the Irish duo arrived at the finish-line safely ensconced in the middle of the pack.
Garmin-Sharp leader Martin remains in 6th place overall, 1:23 behind race-leader Mathias Frank of BMC. Aggressive in the mountains in the early part of this race, expect more fireworks from Martin tomorrow as he seeks to propel himself toward a place on the final podium.
Roche will begin stage 7 in 19th place overall, 2:44 behind Frank. The Saxo-Tinkoff man has performed impressively thus far in service of team leader Roman Kreuziger, and tomorrow the Irish rider’s efforts will be of critical importance as Kreuziger seeks to move out of second place overall.
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Attacks were plentiful in the early part of today’s 186km trek from Leuggern to Meilen as a host of riders tried to secure a place in the breakaway. Swiss climber Michael Albasini (Orica-Green Edge) was the danger man in a sextet that briefly escaped after 14 kilometres, but this group was quickly reeled in by a watchful peloton.
Some 15 kilometres later, shortly before the race reached the town of Bülach, a quartet consisting of Mathew Hayman (Orica-Green Edge), Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha), Bert Grabsch (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Swiss native Grégory Rast (Radioshack-Leopard) was allowed up the road.
The group’s advantage quickly mushroomed above 7 minutes with a relaxed peloton coasting along behind.
The gap continued to grow all day and by the time the lead had extended to 14 minutes with 60 kilometres remaining it became clear that today was the day the breakaway would finally succeed.
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It was a gorgeous summer’s afternoon in the canton of Zürich and thousands lined the streets as the race flashed past in a whirl of sound and colour.
With victory assured for one of their number, the challenge for the four leaders was to remain calm and refrain from attacking too early. All held fire on the final ramp of the day, and the tension began to rise as Grabsch led the escapees down a narrow descent with the finish-line now just over 5 kilometres away.
Grabsch was first to strike with four kilometres remaining, but the German was unable to establish a meaningful gap and his attack was over almost before it began. The game of cat and mouse was now in full swing and Grabsch desperately tried again with 3 kilometres remaining, but just didn’t have the power to get away.
The decisive moment came as the four escapees passed under the flamme rouge, with home favourite Rast violently hurling himself forward from the back of the group.
Grabsch had blown, and as Rast powered toward the line Hayman and Kolobnev could only look at each other. Their dithering handed the victory to the Swiss, who crossed the finish-line with his arms in the air to take a priceless win for the chaotic Radioshack-Leopard team.
Martin and Roche arrived with the rest of the field 10:43 later, and the Irish duo will have benefited from a restful run today.
The fate of both men’s ambitions at this Tour de Suisse will be on the line tomorrow as the peloton tackles the hors-categorie La Punt just before the finish.
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