Nicolas Roche put in the best ride of his season to date at the Tour de Suisse today, Sunday, when he climbed with the best in the race to take sixth on the stage.
The ride has put the Irishman up to fifth overall after two hors cat climbs today, and comes as a welcome indication that his form is coming on nicely just three weeks out from the Tour de France.
Roche finished today some 16 seconds down on stage winner and new overall leader Rui Alberto Costa (Movistar) and is now in fifth place overall, just 21 seconds down on the Portuguese rider.
It was Roche’s best ride since he took a stage in the Tour of Beijing at the end of a crash and injury hit season last year. It comes at the end of a good week for him, during which he was confirmed as one of the three riders selected for the Irish team for the London Olympics.
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The winner of yesterday’s opening TT, Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) fell out of contention with just over 10km to go in today’s 218.3km stage from Verbania to Verbier.
Frank Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan) made a bid for stage glory some 6kms from the finish at the top of the hors cat Verbier ascent.
However, he was unable to keep the momentum going and when Costa attacked the select group with 2km to go in pursuit of Schleck, he overhauled him in the closing couple of hundred metres and took the stage win from him by four seconds.
In the group behind, that surge from Costa put a lot of riders under pressure with the group fragmenting.
Next home after Schleck was Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 12 seconds, followed by Damiano Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale) one second later on the same time as fifth-placed rider Thibaut Pinot (FDJ).
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Then came three men all just two seconds further back, namely Roche and his Ag2r team mate John Gadret, along with Dane Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank).
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Roma Kruiziger (Astana) rounded out the top ten some 18 and 22 seconds respectively down on the stage winner.
Tomorrow’s 195km stage into Aarberg is less testing than today, with a fourth and third cat climb coming towards the end of the stage.
Tour de Suisse, Stage 2 Result
1 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Movistar) 6:21:13
2 Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) @ 4 secs
3 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Euskaltel-Euskadi) @12
4 Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) @13
5 Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Big Mat)
6 Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) @16
7 Chris Anker Sörensen (Team Saxo)
8 John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale)
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) @18
10 Roman Kreuziger (Astana) @22
11 Robert Kiserlovski (Astana)
12 Thomas Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda)
13 Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma – QuickStep)
14 Thomas Löfkvist (Sky) @25
15 Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) @33
General Classification
1 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Movistar) 6:31:22
2 Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) @8 secs
3 Roman Kreuziger (Astana) @15
4 Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-Big Mat) @19
5 Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) @21
6 Thomas Löfkvist (Sky)
7 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) @23
8 John Gadret (AG2R La Mondiale) @24
9 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Euskaltel-Euskadi) @26
10 Thomas Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda) @29
11 Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) @32
12 Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan) @33
13 Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma – QuickStep) @37
14 Chris Anker Sörensen (Saxo) @40
15 Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) @41
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