Tour de Suisse (st. 2)

Visconti -4th overall, just 12 seconds behind the race leader-, Costa and Amador come into front ranks at first mountain-top finish in Switzerland

It was a fine global performance from the Movistar Team rider through all phases of stage two in the 2013 Tour de Suisse, shortened before the race’s start from its original route and turned into a short, 117-kilometer trek from Ulrichen to the Cat-1 climb (16.5km, 7% average) of Crans-Montana. The telephone squad shone through all phases of the course: already from the first attacks, with José Joaquín Rojas staying into alert and Enrique Sanz ultimately making the day’s main break, alongside Riblon (ALM), Fröhlinger (ARG) and Saez de Arregi (EUS), to collect maximum points at all two intermediate sprints and win the Rush jersey for tomorrow.

Into the climb, several moves from Iván Gutiérrez and Jesús Herrada contributed to shake the group, containing 40 riders and three of the Blues -Giovanni Visconti, Andrey Amador and Rui Costa- until the final slopes. A powerful attack from Bauke Mollema (BLA) into the final 1.5km broke the field into pieces and awarded him the stage win; behind, Visconti was the top Movistar Team finish with a notable 9th spot, which took him into fourth overall, just 12 seconds behind race leader Cameron Meyer (GRS).

Costa and Amador, also within a minute of the winner’s time, stay into the top 25 overall as the race is still to see some major changes in the mountains to follow, starting from Monday: 205 kilometers between Montreux and Meiringen, with the Hasliberg climb (Cat-1) just 19k from the end.