Philip Deignan to the fore again as Tour de Suisse hits mountains on final stage

Philip Deignan heads to the National Championships in Mullingar next weekend on the back of a great ride at the Tour de Suisse. He was again to the fore on the big climbs today (Photo: Sirotti) 

Ireland’s Philip Deignan has enjoyed a strong finish to the Tour du Suisse. The Team Sky rider again held his place in the select group that emerged on the final 20km climb yesterday, atop which the race concluded.

That ride followed his 6th place on Saturday’s summit finish when he retained his place in the 10-strong lead group that remained intact until a number of them attacked for stage honours in the closing couple of kilometres.

Yesterday’s concluding stage 9 belonged to world champion Rui Costa (Lampre Merida) who went clear in the early escape and was one of 10 riders never seen again by the rest of the field.

The Portuguese climber attacked the remains of the breakaway coming close to the finish at the summit of the 20km climb to Saas-Fee.

He went on to win the stage alone and also gained enough time on race leader Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) to take the race overall.

He was claiming that outright victory for the third time in a row, with Martin losing the lead he had defended so well since winning the stage 1 time trial of the nine-day event.

The winning breakaway moved clear around 40km into the 157km final stage, which featured four major climbs.

And while their lead never built much higher than two minutes, the efforts of Martin’s team and that of second placed Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) had little or no impact on bringing them back.

Indeed, on the final climb of the day, and having lost their team mates, it was Martin and Dumoulin who were forced to hit the front.

They pooled their efforts in the hope of pegging back the escape that featured a number of men who had leapfrogged into the leading positions overall on the road.

In the end, the attacking up front for the stage win and final podium places succeeded in pulling the gap out to over two minutes again in the closing stages after Martin and Dumoulin had initially brought it down a little.

And as the fruitless chase continued, the group kept getting smaller until by the finish there were just eight of the strongest men remaining, one of whom was Deignan.

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That group finished some 2:18 down on stage winner Rui Costa, who took the victory on the day by 14 seconds from Bauke Mollema (Belkin), with Mathias Frank of IAM Cycling in third a further 10 seconds back.

There were seven of the original breakaway scattered along the road between the top three and the chase group featuring Deignan, which was led home by Dumoulin.

And while the stage winner had started the day 1:05 off the yellow jersey in 3rd place, he ran out the winner by 33 seconds from fellow escapee Frank, with Mollema also moving onto the final podium; in third place, 50 seconds back.

Martin slipped to 4th at 1:13, and Dumoulin was 5th 2:04 off the final winner.

Deignan will now come home for the National Road Race Championships next Sunday.

His form is undoubtedly good enough to ride the Tour de France and to be one of Team Sky’s main climbers in the race. But it is believed management will opt to rest him after such a tough Giro d’Italia that finished just two weeks before the Tour du Suisse began.

June 14th to 22nd: Tour de Suisse

Sun, June 22nd. Stage 9: Martigny to Saas-Fee (157km)

Final General Classification