Oscar Freire (Rabobank) did not start today's 168 kilometres long final stage of this years Tour de Suisse, from Altdorf to
the Swiss capital Bern.
Many riders tried there luck and attacked early to get in the right break, speculating the sprinter teams might not
chase them down as there sprinters would have a hard day with the road going up a bit in the last few hundred metres before
the line.
A group with 11 riders took off. Among them riders like Ronny Scholz (Gerolsteiner) and Swiss riders Grégory Rast (Astana),
Hubert Schwab (Quickstep), and BMC riders Martin Kohler and Alexandre Moos. But Alessandro Ballan (Lampre) was also part
of the break and the bunch did not like his presence in the escape group. The bunch caught the 11 men after only 18 kilometres.
The next move was made by Francisco Perez Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne), Maarten Tjallingi (Silence-Lotto), Hervé Duclos-Lasalle
(Cofidis), Darren Lill (BMC) and René Weissinger (Volksbank). The group worked together well but their lead didn't
really grow big enough: 3 minutes.
After 50 kilometres the bunch was only 2:15 behind the five race leaders. But as the riders had abolved 100
kilomtres the lead of the breakaway group was around 3:30. But the five would not come through. With 50 kilometres to go their
lead dropped to 2 minutes.
Gerolsteiner, Milram and Quickstep were leading the chase and decided to play cat and mouse with the escapees. After 143
kilometres Lill won the first mountain points and Volksbank René Weissinger secured his lead in the sprint classification
by winning the intermediate sprint (147 kilometres mark). Duclos-Lasalle won the second intermediate sprint.
During the second climb (fourth category) of the day the bunch caught the escapees. David Loosli (Lampre) and Maxim Iglinsky
(Astana) sprinted for the points at the top of the climb and Iglinsky won the points and the mountain classification after
his effort. Iglinksy did not wait for the group and took off. With 5 kilometres to go he was joined by two more riders but
Silence - Lotto (riding for Belgian young gun Greg Avermaet after Robbie McEwen left the race on Saturday) brought the bunch
back.
It looked like Silence - Lotto would launch Avermaet perfectly but without their premier sprinter McEwen the Belgian team
miscalculated the distance and at the 'Flamme Rouge' Avermaet did not have any helper left.
Phillipe Gilbert (Francaise des Jeux) took off on the turbo but the winner of this years 'Het Volk' was caught by Fabian
Cancellara who had started a counter attack and jumped over Gibert to take the final stage.
Roman Kreuziger's (Liquigas) overall win was never in danger during the final stage. The 22 years and one month old
Czech rider is not only the first Czech to win the race but Kreuziger also broke a 22 year old record. Kreuziger is now the
youngest overall winner of the Tour de Suisse. Kreuziger is six months younger as Italian rider Ambrogio Portalupi was when
he won the 1966 Tour de Suisse.
Andreas Klöden (Astana) finished second overall and Basque rider Igor Anton (Euskatel - Euskadi) completed the overall
podium.
