A True Suisse Smorgasbord

By Ashton | Permalink |

2 comments | June 24th, 2007 | Trackback

That’s a buffet for those of you in L.A. (Lower Alabama), and I don’t mean the Jimmy Buffet kind. The 71st Tour de Suisse apparently had something for everyone.

The Russian Reign continued as Vladimir Karpets of Caisse d’Epargne wore the yellow jersey on the final podium. The hometown fans got to see Swiss favorite son and World Time Trial Champion Fabian Cancellaraof Team CSC win the final stage.

Racing fans enjoyed the excitement the two at large teams, Volksbank and Unibet.com, injected into this race all week with their aggressive tactics and hard riding. Those two teams enjoyed no less equal rewards. Florian Stalder, yet another Swiss rider, won the Sprinter’s Jersey for Volksbank; and Unibet came in second in the Team Classification only four seconds behind Caisse d’Epargne.

Team Discovery, the favorite of many U.S. fans, did not come away empty handed either. Russian Vladimir Gusev won the King of the Mountains Jersey, largely as a result of his gutsy climb that claimed the seventh stage at the top of the Grimselpass. Gusev also finished with the fifth best time in today’s Time Trial (one second behind fellow Discovery Teammate) Stijn Devolder of Belgium) and 15th in the G.C.

While the Russians and Swiss were taking turns dominating this race and Team Discovery was trying to identify the riders to fill up its Tour de France team, Andreas Kloeden further solidified his place on Astana’s TdF team by coming in second in the Time Trial by only 20 seconds and 10th in the G.C. only 3′19″ behind the winner.

All the teams seem to be in good form and have continued to improve through the spring. Based on the strength of their team, their superior and aggressive tactics, and their apparent commitment to a team concept that fields more than one potential GC winner, I still don’t see how anyone will beat out Astana in France next month. This does promise to be an exciting and competitive Tour de France because so many teams and riders are capable of competing for the GC and for the jerseys.

I can hardly wait, but this Tour de Suisse was more than worth that wait!

See you next time.