Tour de Suisse (st. 1)

Portuguese beats most of the GC contenders in 2012 Tour de Suisse overall title defense's start, gets relegated at opening ITT due to weather. Visconti grabs 11th spot

A massive wind change halfway through the race awarded Cameron Meyer (OGE) the victory in the 8.1-kilometer opening ITT of the 2013 Tour de Suisse in the Quinto aerodrome in Italian-speaking Ticino. The time clocked by the Australian wasn’t beaten by anyone from the biggest specialists, including Cancellara (RLT) and Sagan (CAN), and seized a yellow jersey defended by Rui Costa (Movistar Team) after his brilliant overall win in 2012.

Given the circumstances, the Portuguese rider’s time (40 seconds off Meyer’s pace) was one of the fastest within the main GC contenders: only Hesjedal (GRS, 19″ down) and Pinot (FDJ, 30″ back), both starting at the top of the list, beat Rui, who took some seconds over the likes of Mollema, Brajkovic, Kreuziger, Péraud, Van Garderen or Antón. Giovanni Visconti -11th, 20 seconds behind Meyer- and Iván Gutiérrez were the two best finishers from the telephone squad, with Andrey Amador back into racing after his collarbone fracture in April.

The first round of mountains on Helvetic soil will come on Sunday: a short stage (118km) from Ulrichen -instead of the initially proposed start in Quinto, due to snow keeping closed the Nufenenpass- to Crans-Montana (Cat-1), the scenery of Mauricio Soler’s last pro victory.