Eventual stage winner Albasini leads today’s early breakaway
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche has moved up a couple of places in the overall standings at the Tour de Suisse after finishing today’s tough mountain stage near the head of the race.
The Ag2r man is targeting a top ten overall in Switzerland by the time the race finishes after more climbing on the final stage tomorrow. Following is 11th place at the summit finish of today’s eight stage to Arosa, he is now 13th overall and some 39 seconds off tenth.
Today’s GC battle was the predicted war of attrition up the hors cat slopes to the finish, with the peloton being whittled down to a select group, which then fractured in the closing kilometres.
Roche put in a very good ride and has clearly found his climbing again this week, a timely development with the Tour de France now just a fortnight away.
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Today’s stage was won by Michael Albasini (Orica GreenEdge). He went clear in the day’s early breakaway, attacking them before the final climb and banging out a strong tempo up the slopes to take a popular win in his home tour.
Behind him, the battle for the GC was an interesting one with the race so tight on time.
The yellow jersey of Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Movistar) looked vulnerable on the final ascent. When Frank Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan) attacked with 4kms of climbing remaining, he pulled a number of riders with him and effectively split the lead group.
Roche was one of those unable to match that injection of pace. However, he did not panic and instead rode hard to the finish where he crossed the line at the head of a five-man group that included the yellow jersey.
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In the end, Albasini took the stage by 1:15 ahead of the trio of Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma – QuickStep) and Schleck. Roche came home 2:05 down.
He now jumps to 13th from 15th this morning. Tomorrow’s stage features two hors cat climbs before the race finishes of a second cat climb.
Schleck is now second on GC, just 14 seconds down on yellow jersey Da Costa. Leipheimer is in third, just 21 seconds down while Robert Gesink (Rabobank) is fourth, just 25 seconds down.
With all of those capable of taking outright victory tomorrow, it seems a certainty that more attacking is in order and that Roche could move up overall if he has the legs.
Result: Stage 8 Bischofszell - Arosa 148.2km
1 Michael Albasini (Orica GreenEdge) 3:45:39
2 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Euskaltel-Euskadi) @1:15
3 Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma – QuickStep)
4 Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan)
5 Robert Gesink (Rabobank Cycling) @1:36
6 Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Big Mat)
7 Thomas Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda)
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) @1:39
9 Roman Kreuziger (Astana) @1:57
10 Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan)
11 Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) @2:05
12 Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha)
13 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar)
14 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Movistar)
15 Thomas Löfkvist (Sky Procycling)
General Classification
1 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Movistar) 29:58:39
2 Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) @14
3 Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma – QuickStep) @21
4 Robert Gesink (Rabobank) @25
5 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Euskaltel-Euskadi) @40
6 Roman Kreuziger (Astana) @42
7 Thomas Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda) @43
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) @1:01
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) @1:04
10 Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Big Mat) @1:13
11 Thomas Löfkvist (Sky) @1:22
12 Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan) @1:26
13 Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) @1:52
14 Chris Anker Sörensen (Saxo Bank) @2:12
15 Mathias Frank (BMC) @2:23
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