Tour de Suisse: Dekker wins at Crans Montana

Thomas Dekker got a great morale boost in his preparation for the Tour de France on Thursday. He impressively won the mountain stage to Crans Montana, which was shortened due to terrible weather conditions. At the 1500 meter mark of the in total 12 kilometer long final climb, Dekker rode away from the ten men lead group in commanding style. The lead group included well-known climbing veterans such as Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego and Vladimir Karpets. Dekker reached the finish line solo. Austrian rider Gerrit Glomser (Volksbank) came in second ahead of Gilberto Simoni (Saunier Duval).

Dekker's victory is remarkable if we take into consideration his performances earlier this week, his preparation that was hindered by a hip injury, and the fact that he was among those who were wounded by the terrible hailstorm at the start of the stage. Sports Directors warned their riders to quickly take shelter from the approaching heavy weather. Some riders were a little too late, including Dekker. He got hit by hailstones as big as golf balls, but he was able to continue after treatment. That did not go for the Italian Nocentini, who was hurt so badly that he had to give up.

The weather was so bad that the tour organization immediately decided to stop the race. Riders took shelter in garages, houses and cars. Nearly all the follow cars, including Rabobank's two team leader cars, had damage to the body work due to the heavy weather. After a considerable delay, the organization decided to shorten the stage by one-hundred kilometers. Hence, the highest point of the Tour of Switzerland, the Nufenenpass at 2479 meters altitude, was deleted from the parcours.

Dekker wrote in a mobile message: "What a surprise, I wanted to test today but my ambition was top 20! I saw Gibo and Cunego looking fresh and had to surprise them. Well it was successful!"

Thomas Dekker reports on his own website that he thought this was an advantage. But, both Dekker as well as Michael Boogerd had already announced before the start of the stage that they wanted to test themselves. "They wanted to know in what kind of condition they are in, and that decision was made well before they decided to delete the high climb from the parcours," said Rabobank Sports Director Adri van Houwelingen. He saw the youngest of the two perform better than anyone of the Raboteam had expected. "Thomas really did not start the stage this afternoon thinking about winning it. That is how it unfolded, but if he had finished in fifteenth place, we would have also been satisfied."

Michael Boogerd was also doing better than the last few days. "It was of course not perfect, but Michael is making progress. The little improvements he makes are normal for a rider at the age of 35. They are smaller than the progress such a young guy like Thomas makes, but he is improving himself," reported Van Houwelingen satisfied.

Volksbank's Gerrit Glomser came in second and said: "We have a good team. With this result I want to thank all." Glomser continued by saying: "I concentrated on finding my rhytm quickly. I succeeded. At the climb i rode to the front found my rhytm and felt so well that I attacked. I knew I needed an advantage before they started with the firework at the back [of the group]. " Glomser did not win because he was unable to follow Thomas Dekker's furious attack. "But a second place is something you can present yourself with," Glomsre said. The Austrian veteran concluded: "I hope I can give pleasure to the team on the remaining stages."

CSC's Fränk Schleck lost his yellow jersey to Russian rider Vladimir Efimkin (Caisse d'Epargne). That's too bad, but it couldn't be helped. We'd kinda hoped that Fränk would take another stage, which is why we picked up the pace just before the climb. But maybe it was a disadvantage for Fränk that the stage was shortened. He never really got the chance to wear down his rivals, because it was fast paced on a flat road before the climb. But on the other hand it was quite good that the team was spared a bit today with a shorter route," said CSC Sports Director Kim Andersen.

Friday's 125k stage 7 is the undoubted queen stage with two Hors Categorie climbs (Furkapass 2.436 m and Sustenpass 2.215m) and then the summit finish on the first category climb of the Grimselpass.

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