I know this shouldn't come as a surprise, but Peter Sagan won another stage in the Tour de Suisse! This man is on fire!!!
June 12, Stage 4: Aarberg - Trimbach/Olten 188.8km
Sagan sprints to stage 4 win in the Tour de Suisse
Superlatives are rapidly being exhausted at the Tour de Suisse, as Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) raced to his third stage win in four days with disarming facility in the rain at Trimbach/Olten.
With 6 kilometres to go here, it briefly appeared as though the 22-year-old might for once be thwarted, as escapees Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Martin Elminger (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Sky) held a 35-second lead over the reduced peloton, but a lengthy stint of pace-making from Liquigas’ Moreno Moser helped reel them in ahead of the finish.
“I have to thank Moreno for helping me so much, today the win is thanks to him,” Sagan said as he waited to mount the podium.
Once the juncture was made inside the final three kilometres, there was an ineluctable feel about the sequence of events. Only Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) and then Jakob Fuglsang (RadioShack-Nissan) raged briefly against the dying of the light, but their attacks were deftly quenched by Moser.
In the final sprint, Marcus Burghardt (BMC) made a bold attempt to anticipate Sagan by opening his effort early. In vain. With 200 metres to go, Sagan lifted himself from the saddle and moved past remorselessly to take the win.
José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) dived gamely for Sagan’s rear wheel, but it eluded his grasp, ghosting away inexorably to the line. Indeed, if anything, Rojas’ move seemed mainly to upset the sprint of his fellow countryman Oscar Freire (Katusha), who could only manage 9th.
Rojas came home in second, ahead of Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), with Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) coming across the line in fourth, but nobody was ever able to threaten Sagan’s striking pre-eminence.
“No win is easy but I’m very happy,” Sagan said. “I’m very glad that I was able to take the right wheel in the sprint.”
There was no change at the head of the overall standings, even though the conditions and the undulating finale saw the peloton whittled down to just 60 before the finish. Rui Costa (Movistar) retains his 8-second lead over Fränk Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan), while Roman Kreuziger (Astana) remains in third, 15 seconds back.
Attacking finale
While a number of riders attempted to slip clear after the damp, grey start in Aarberg, it was not until the 1st category climb of the Scheltenpass (81.5km) that the principal break of the day took shape, with Dario Cataldo (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Mathew Hayman (Sky), Martin Kohler (BMC), Gregory Rast (RadioShack Nissan), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Sebastien Minard (AG2R), Sergio Paulinho (Saxo Bank), Javier Megías (Team Type 1) and Brian Vandvorg (Spidertech) going clear.
Cataldo began the stage just 1:15 off Rui Costa’s (Movistar) overall lead, which meant that the escapees were never granted much leeway by the peloton behind. By the time the race reached the finishing circuit at Trimbach/Olten with 40km to go, their lead was just 2 minutes, and their unity was shattered on the 3rd category Unter Hauenstein.
A flurry of attacking did little other than see their gap to the bunch dwindle to just 25 seconds and on the way down the other side, Nordhaug clipped off the head of the peloton and set off in lone pursuit. By the base of the descent, he was alone in front, while Cataldo, the only survivor of the early leaders, had been joined by Elminger and Van Avermaet.
Atop the final climb of the Salhöhe with 15km to race, Nordhaug had 30 seconds on the reduced peloton, while Van Avermaet and Elminger had shed themselves of Cataldo and were grimly closing the gap in driving rain. In spite of the diminished numbers behind, the overall contenders remained tentative as Albasini, Fränk Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan), Roman Kreuziger (Astana) and overall leader Rui Costa (Movistar) closely watched one another on the climb.
Movistar’s lack of numbers in the group meant that they were unwilling to take up the chase on the run-in, a stalemate which initially allowed the three leaders (who finally came together with 7 kilometres to go) to stretch out their lead. But when Katusha, Garmin-Barracuda and, particularly, Liquigas’ Moser began to commit themselves, the picture changed dramatically and the stage swung inevitabily back into Sagan’s orbit.
Full Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale | 4:36:55 | |
| 2 | Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team | ||
| 3 | Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team | ||
| 4 | Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Barracuda | ||
| 5 | Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Pro Team Astana | ||
| 6 | Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Katusha Team | ||
| 7 | Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale | ||
| 8 | Wout Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | ||
| 9 | Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Katusha Team | ||
| 10 | Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team |
After some riders had a less than stellar performance at the Criterium du Dauphine, they are now worrying about their Tour de France chances:
Dan Martin happy to make it through Critérium du Dauphiné
In spite of crashing heavily on the opening road stage, Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) managed to complete the Critérium du Dauphiné and keep his hopes of making his Tour de France debut intact.
The Irishman fell forcefully on his right side, injuring his shoulder and cracking his helmet in two in the process, but fortunately sustained no broken bones in the incident. Although his restricted movement would hinder his ability to eat on the bike for much of the week, Martin battled through to Châtel and declared himself pleased with his condition as he emerged from the race.
“I’m really proud to have finished the race now because it’s been a really tough week,” Martin told Cyclingnews in Morzine ahead of Sunday’s final stage. “The physios and the chiropractor have been great and the guys have been incredible at keeping the morale up.
“I just count myself pretty lucky because I was pretty sure that I’d broken my shoulder when I crashed. So to come away from that with just some muscular damage is pretty good.”
Martin was able to count on the help of Sep Vanmarcke in particular during his travails on stages two and three, as he struggled to feed himself on the hoof. “I didn’t have the strength in my right arm to support myself when I took my left hand off the bars to eat,” he explained.
Indeed, like Andy Schleck, who would crash and eventually abandon later in the week, Martin’s injuries meant that simply climbing out of the saddle proved nigh on impossible for several days. “I couldn’t get out of the saddle, so I’ve done it all seated, which really isn’t usual for me,” he explained, before joking, “But in terms of training my lower back to sit in the saddle all the time, I suppose it’s been a good week for me.”
Tour de France
After a strong spring campaign that saw him finish 4th at the Volta a Catalunya and in the top 6 at both Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, it would be understandable if Martin were frustrated that his crash denied him the chance to test himself against the likes of Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins in the mountains.
“It’s hard to be frustrated when I’m still in one piece,” he said. “I split my helmet in two as well, so it could have been a lot worse. Besides, I was able to climb in the front group on Friday, the first hard day [over the Col du Grand Colombier - ed.]”
Martin was one of many riders unable to follow the tempo imposed by Team Sky’s disquieting show of force on the Col de Joux-Plane on Saturday afternoon, but given his travails earlier in the race, the Irishman was not unduly concerned.
“Physically, I think getting through this week has shown that my form is pretty good, but the lack of recovery over the week caught up with me,” he said. “I know the legs are there, I’m confident. Hopefully I’ll be up with those guys at the Tour.”
Forced out at the last minute through injury in 2009 and surprisingly overlooked last season despite a fine run of June form, Martin is still waiting to make his Tour de France debut. Given his past experience, he is reluctant to discuss La Grande Boucle until he has a number pinned on his back on June 30.
“I pulled out when I was already in Monaco in 2009 with a sore knee and it could have been the same with this crash as well,” Martin said. “Anything can happen. I’ll just wait until I’m in Liège before I start talking about the Tour.”
Sanchez heads for Sierra Nevada ahead of Tour de France
Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) struggled through the Critérium du Dauphiné after crashing early on the opening road stage, but the Spaniard’s Tour de France participation is not in doubt after a scan on Monday confirmed that he had sustained no broken ribs in the incident.
The Olympic champion consulted Sporting Gijon club doctor Antonio Maestro on his return from France, and learned that he was suffering from a tear to his left latissimus dorsi muscle and an edema near his right fourth rib. Sanchez will spend two days off the bike before beginning his final build-up to the Tour.
“If I had pulled out of the Dauphiné, I would have been a step behind in my preparation and I could almost have waved goodbye to the Tour, but I managed to keep going and at least I have eight days of high-level racing in my legs,” Sanchez told El Comercio.
Sanchez, who finished the Dauphiné almost an hour down on overall winner Bradley Wiggins (Sky) will travel to Sierra Nevada on Wednesday to undertake a ten-day training camp at altitude. Third overall in 2010 [following the disqualification of Alberto Contador – ed.] and king of the mountains last year, Sanchez agreed that based on their Dauphiné form, Wiggins and defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) would be the men to beat in July.
“Wiggins is very strong and his Sky team is really very motivated,” said Sanchez. “I also felt that Evans was going very well."
Nibali starts training camp on Passo San Pellegrino
(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nibali-starts-training-camp-on-passo-san-pellegrino)From Tuesday, June 12 until Saturday, June 23, Liquigas-Cannondale is holding a last pre-Tour de France training camp on the Passo San Pellegrino, including Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso. Nibali, the designated leader for the upcoming grand tour, will use the camp to get his form up to the desired level following a Critérium du Dauphiné in which his performances were somewhat limited compared to his rivals for July.
The Italian was on the attack on the final day after having losing more than nine minutes on Saturday's queen stage, which involved the HC climb Col de Joux-Plane. "It was a question of pride, and most of all, I wanted to see how I'd feel," he told Gazzetta dello Sport, explaining his moved that was ultimately doomed. "In the stage of the Joux Plane I had a bad day. But I'm not hiding the fact that I'm looking for better form, and for that the efforts made in the race will serve me well. I was looking for answers and I got some.
"There were riders who were doing well, but I think that many were worse than I was," he added, possibly alluding to Andy Schleck's recent form. The RadioShack-Nissan is arguably in even worse form just three weeks prior to the Tour, where Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Cadel Evans (BMC) now look to be the top favourites.
But Nibali remains confident that he can catch up on his delay during the training camp and by competing in the Italian road race championships on June 23. On Passo San Pellegrino, "I have to do some specific mountain training, especially on the long ascents that last more than one hour."
The 2010 Vuelta a Espana winner and two-time Giro d'Italia podium finisher will be back at the French grand tour for the first time since he finished seventh overall in 2009. As for his view on the favourites for the yellow jersey, he thought that "the only ones that have shown to have something extra are Wiggins and Evans. Still, the Tour isn't won at the Dauphiné."
But for every rider that feels that his performance in the Dauphine wasn't as good as it could be, there is always one that believes he is doing good:
Rolland "better than last year"
(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rolland-better-than-last-year)Winner of the white jersey last July, Frenchman Pierre Rolland is looking forward to the upcoming Tour de France, having found the form he was looking for at the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Rolland did not score any spectacular result at the Dauphiné, but used the race to gauge his form - and was very satisfied. "It's not easy to express 100 percent of my capabilities in a one-week race. I tried to get into the right breakaways, but I'm often better in the second or third week. All in all, I feel a bit better than last year. I'm more at ease in the mountains and inside the peloton in general. The last Tour de France taught me the importance of positioning. I've also gained more confidence in the descents," the Europcar rider told L'Equipe.
Thanks to his success at last year's race, Rolland has matured into a team leader, a position he shares with Thomas Voeckler. "I've gained a lot of confidence in myself. Moreover, I've come to an age where I can be more of a protected rider within my team. My teammates will be playing towards my advantage."
This also applies to the more experienced Voeckler. "I worked for him in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, on the Tour last year, and I know he'll be doing the same for me. If I tell him one morning that I feel good and that I can win, I know he'll help me. He's a smart guy, you can tell by the way he races. He never attacks for nothing," Rolland continued.
Unlike the previous edition, this year's Tour de France will include an increased number of time trial kilometres, for which the climber will prepare by racing the French time trial championships. "It's simple: I'll do the same amount of kilometres against the clock in June as I will in July [counting also the long time trial at the Dauphiné - ed.]. That way, my body will be more used to this kind of effort."
As for the increased pressure since his tenth place at the Tour last year, Rolland taking it in his stride. "Of course there is more pressure, but that's the game. I'm not making an obsession of it. I'm able to put aside quite a lot of things. My career will not stop at the 2012 Tour if ever I have some problem. Within the team, Jean-René (Bernaudeau) is not putting us under pressure - we know what we can do."
And finally, keeping up with my RadioShack Nissan Trek news, (what, you think I'd forget to mention them??), let's add more fuel to the fire that is already burning out of control. Not only did the RSNT team leave Chris Horner off the Tour de France selection, but they also lied about their reason why. Well, in true fashion, Horner has his own comments about the situation:
Horner on Tour selection snub: ‘My back is fine’
(http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/06/news/horner-on-tour-selection-snub-my-back-is-fine_223336)Hours after learning that his RadioShack-Nissan team had not included him on its list of riders pre-selected for the Tour de France due to a back injury, American veteran Chris Horner told VeloNews that his back is no longer hurting him, and that he would have been ready to race come the Tour’s June 30 start in Liège, Belgium.
Horner’s team said Monday that back problems, which flared up last month following the Amgen Tour of California, had prevented him from racing the Tour de Suisse and therefore made it unfeasible for him to race the Tour.
“Already at California, his back was not OK. That is also the reason why he is not in the Tour de Suisse this week,” RadioShack spokesman Philippe Maertens told VeloNews on Monday. “Without racing Suisse, it would be impossible for him to race in the Tour de France.”
Horner acknowledged that he took a week off the bike following California to treat his lower back — forcing him to skip the May 31 road race at the USA Cycling Professional National Championships — but he said that he had since returned to training and he had opted to skip Suisse, as he did last year, to fully concentrate on being at his best for the Tour.
“My back is fine,” Horner said. “There is no problem with my back. It was tight after California. It spasms up from time-to-time. I needed five days to rest it, so I took a week off the bike. I could have shown up to Suisse but I wouldn’t have had form.
“If the Tour de France was a month later, I could do Suisse, recover, and then train again. But the finish of Suisse is 10 days before the Tour, so it was better to just train and focus on doing that. I trained hard last week, I rode 600 miles, and I rode 100 miles today.”
Horner, who will turn 41 in October, has dealt with intermittent lower back problems since 2006, adding that the only time he’s ever missed a race because of the pain was the 2008 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. That year his Astana team had been excluded from the Tour, and Horner instead spent his July supporting his teammate Levi Leipheimer at the Cascade Cycling Classic, which Leipheimer won.
Horner’s best Tour ride was ninth overall in 2010. He crashed out of last year’s edition with a concussion. Later doctors discovered a potentially dangerous embolism in his lung and he didn’t return to racing until this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico, where he finished second overall.
Horner said he learned about his exclusion from the RadioShack Tour team from his wife, who read it on the Internet and called him while he was out training. He added that as of Monday evening, he had not yet spoken with anyone from RadioShack team management. The last time he spoke with team manager Johan Bruyneel, Horner said, was a month earlier in Santa Rosa, California, when Bruyneel briefly visited the team prior to the start of the Amgen Tour.
“While I’m out doing a 100-mile training ride, I’m told that my back is wrecked beyond competing at the Tour de France,” Horner said. “As bike racers, you want to do the Tour more than any other race. By all means I can understand the team being concerned about a back problem, but my therapist was able to get it back under control, and at almost three weeks out, it’s still early to make that kind of decision.”
With Horner’s permission, Greg Bourque — a licensed acupuncturist and certified massage therapist who has treated Horner since 1997 — described Horner’s back issues as general erector spine tightening, absent of signs of sciatica or neurological dysfunction.
“I’ve treated Chris seven days a week since the Amgen Tour of California, for 90 minutes nightly, and after the first week, we didn’t even really focus on his back,” Bourque said. “I moved on to a knee treatment, and some general neuromuscular work, focusing on soft tissue — not joints or ligaments, just muscles.
“Lately it was not even therapeutic massage, because he was riding 100 miles a day,” Bourque continued. “It was not even deep work, nothing fancy, just a drainage massage to get him ready for the next day of training. He was doing everything right to look after himself. I know him really well, and I fully expected him to be ready for the Tour — and I fully expected him to be going to the Tour. And I know he did as well.”
What comes next?
Horner admitted that his back issues are triggered by outside stresses, and acknowledged that there is more stress on his RadioShack team this year than in the past.Owned by Luxembourg-based businessman Flavio Becca, who merged his Leopard-Trek team with RadioShack after disappointment in his squad’s 2011 season, RadioShack-Nissan has fallen short of expectations both in stage races and at the spring classics. Only Fabian Cancellara and Jakob Fuglsang have registered wins thus far — both have missed starts due to injury — while Tour contender Andy Schleck has struggled throughout the year to finish races.
Horner’s ride in the leader’s jersey and eventual second-place overall at Tirreno was among the few bright spots for the squad in early 2012. His contract with the team is set through 2013.
And while he said he was “devastated” to miss the Tour, describing his disappointment as “catastrophic,” Horner said he was equally as concerned about what the team’s message might mean for potential Olympic selection.
USA Cycling is set to announce its five-man Olympic team roster on Friday, June 15. None of the five spots have been claimed through automatic qualifications.
As of the June 10 UCI WorldTour ranking, Horner was the highest-placed American rider, 25th, as well as the highest-ranked RadioShack rider on the list.
Throughout his career, Horner has been in the running, but overlooked, for Olympic selection — first back in 1996, and again in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
Horner said he spent Monday afternoon emailing his most recent power files to Jim Miller, USA Cycling’s vice president of athletics, to prove that he is race-fit and worthy of Olympic selection.
“I’ve had great results this year. I was top 10 at the Tour of the Basque Country, and I was third on the hardest climbing stage at Basque,” Horner said. “I was second overall at Tirreno, and in California I was clearly one of the best riders. I know I had a bad time trial; I was there, I remember it well. But if you look at the Mount Baldy stage, it was epic, there were three teams destroyed chasing me, I had a one-minute lead at the bottom of the Baldy climb and only four guys caught me by the finish.
“I’ve proven I can ride with best in the world,” Horner continued. “My back is healing. Whether or not my team wants to take me, I can’t control that. But I don’t like that they’re putting something out there that’s not true, that could affect my chance of going to the Olympics.”
Because he hadn’t spoken with anyone from his team, Horner couldn’t speculate on what the rest of his 2012 race schedule might look like, and if August might include racing Stateside, at the Tour of Utah and USA Pro Cycling Challenge, or abroad, at the Vuelta a España.
“I have no idea what the team is planning for me, because we haven’t spoken,” he said. “No one has called me, so I have no idea what they are thinking. I’ve had no communication with the team.”
Instead, Horner said he wanted to focus on what he did know.
“The team has put it out there that I have a severe back problem,” Horner said. “I don’t. I’m not injured. I’m not hurt. This is something I’ve had since 2006. It flares up, and it disappears, and I keep racing. I’ve had the best results of my career with this problem. Could it reoccur at the Tour de France? Sure, anything is possible. A knee injury is possible. A broken collarbone is possible. But I’m not going to let the team make it out like I have some devastating back problem, when I don’t.”
