2010 Tour of Switzerland: a surprising end, the time trial for Tony Martin, the final victory for Fränk Schleck

Added: sunday 20 June 2010 at 16:44:00

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A surprising end in the Tour of Switzerland 2010 this afternoon: Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) didn't win the final time trial, and neither Robert Gesink (Rabobank) nor Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) takes the final victory of the 74th edition of the Tour of Switzerland!

No, Tony Martin was faster than Fabian Cancellara and thus takes the stage victory. Robert Gesink's performance in this final time trial was disappointing, in contrast to Lance Armstrong's. Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank)'s performance wasn't disappointing either and the rider from Luxembourg thus stays ahead of the American: Fränk Schleck wins the 2010 Tour of Switzerland!
The summary of the last stage of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland
A 26.9 kilometer individual time trial, of which 11.4 uphill, was the final stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010.

In the top 10 the day before the decisive time trial, Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) was seen as the best time trial specialist. Positioned 7th at 55 seconds from Robert Gesink (Rabobank), the American had to win back more than 2 seconds per kilometer on the Dutch rider to get over him in the general classification. Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) was, just like for the opening time trial which he won, seen as the biggest favourite for this stage.

Afte a best time for Thor Hushovd (Cervélo TestTeam), it was up to Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing Team) to take the best time. Not really surprising, his best time was beaten about 15 riders later by the Swiss Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank). Spartacus took a time of 32'38" which for a long time remained the reference time in this final time trial of the Tour of Switzerland 2010.

The German rider Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), who started among the 15 last riders, does however get over his time with 17 seconds for 32'21" and thus becomes the winner of this last stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010.

Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) ended his individual effort a bit over one minute behind the HTC-Columbia rider in 11th position. Robert Gesink lost too much time in the second part of this time trial and ended at 2'18" behind Tony Martin.
The rider who does the best operation today however doesn't come from the United States nor from Germany, but from the small country of Luxembourg and is called Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank). Indeed, the oldest of the Schleck brothers -already winner of the 3rd stage in the 2010 Tour of Switzerland- ended the stage in 13th position at 1'13" and thus took the first place in the general classification and thus the overall win in this 74th edition of the Tour of Switzerland!
The final classifications of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland
Stage classification 9th stage: individual time trial Liestal > Liestal
At the top of the top 10 we find the time trial specialists who used this final stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 to mesure there performances at less than two weeks from the Tour de France 2010:

1/ Tony Martin ([[HTC-Columbia) - 32'21" (49,892 km/h)
2/ Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) - 32'38" - +0'17"
3/ David Zabriskie (Team Garmin-Transitions) - 32'50" - +0'29"
4/ Gustav Erik Larsson (Team Saxo Bank) - 33'09" - +0'48"
5/ Levi Leipheimer (Team Radioshack) - 33'09" - +0'48"
6/ Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack) - 33'13" - +0'52"
7/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - 33'13" - +0'52"
8/ Maxime Monfort (HTC-Columbia) - 33'18" - +0'57"
9/ Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 33'23" - +1'02"
10/ Stijn Devolder (Quick Step) - 33'28" - +1'07"
General classification
Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) is thus the big winner of this Tour of Switzerland 2010, 12 seconds ahead of Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) and 17 of his team mate Jakob Fuglsang. Robert Gesink (Rabobank) finally ended at a disappointing 5th place, at 27 seconds from the rider from Luxembourg.

With a lot of emotion in his voice, Fränk Schleck indicated after the stage he was thinking of Kim Kirchen (Katusha Team) who's currently in the hospital: I hope he'll be getting better soon. Concerning his performance in the Tour of Switzerland today, Schleck said: I was a little bit surprised myself that it went so well but the good thing about being on the same team as Fabian Cancellara is that you get to know a trick or two about time trialing and he said I could pull it off before the stage. Winning here so close to the Tour de France means a lot to me.

Lance Armstrong of course used his favourite medium, Twitter, to comment his second place:
- Just finished Tour de Suisse. Moved up to 2nd on the GC which I'm pleased with. Form is progressing, will be ready for the TdF
- Congrats to @schleckfrank on his win here. Great rider, great friend, and rode a helluva TT today
before continuing with the day-by-day business thanking his boy Max for his father's day message

1/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - 35h02'00"
2/ Lance Armstrong (Team Radioshack) - +0'12"
3/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'17"
4/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) - +0'23"
5/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - +0'27"
6/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) - +0'27"
7/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'33"
8/ Andreas Klöden (Team Radioshack) - +0'48"
9/ Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team) - +1'09"
10/ Levi Leipheimer (Team Radioshack) - +1'14"
Classification by points
Thanks to his two stage victories in this Tour of Switzerland 2010, Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team) wins the classification by points, ex aequo with José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne):
1/ Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team) - 50 points
2/ José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) - 50 points
3/ Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 43 points
4/ Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) - 36 points
5/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) - 33 points
6/ Oscar Freire (Rabobank) - 33 points
7/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 27 points
8/ Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Caisse d'Epargne) - 25 points
9/ Maxime Monfort (HTC-Columbia) - 25 points
10/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - 24 points
King of the Mountains classification
His team mate, the young Swiss rider Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) wins the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) - 49 points
2/ Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 40 points
3/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank) - 21 points
4/ Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 19 points
5/ Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team) - 18 points
6/ Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 15 points
7/ Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Doimo) - 13 points
8/ Maxime Monfort (HTC-Columbia) - 11 points
9/ Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) - 10 points
10/ Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 10 points

Mathias Frank also wins the sprints classification, with one point ahead of Marcus Burghardt with 16 points.
Team classification
In the team classification, the team of the winner finally ends at the first place as well (as a reminder: the team classification is based on the addition of the times of the three best placed riders for each team):

1/ Team Saxo Bank - 105h03'40"
2/ Team Radioshack - +4'34"
3/ Caisse d'Epargne - +16'33"
4/ Team Sky - +17'05"
5/ Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team - +18'21"
by Thomas Vergouwen
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