The 35th GP Tell ended on Sunday with the overall win of Timofey Kritskiy. The 21 year-old athlete of the Continental team Katyusha is the third Russian to take the stage race win since 2003. In that year, Vladimir Gusev won, while last year Anton Reshetnikov prevailed. The final stage led the riders criss-cross through the Swiss Canton of Lucerne. It was won by the Dutch rider Coen Vermeltfoort from the U23-squad of Rabobank in a bunch sprint. Volksbank's pro rider Elias Schmäh was the best Swiss rider in the overall.
It was already Vermeltfoort's seventh victory this season. His most important result this year was the win in the U23-race of Paris – Roubaix.
Kritskiy and his strong France-based squad Katyusha had the control over the peloton in the final stage. Despite the offensive racing of the peloton no group managed to get away. That left Kritskiy winning the overall uncontested, his most important victory to date.
Hero of the day was a rider out of the national team of France, Blel Kadri. Temporarily he was in the lead with over one minute over the pack but with 40 kilometres to go Kadri was caught.
Once more the foreign riders dominated the top Swiss U23 cycling event. Kritskiy won the first road stage in Brunnen to take the overall lead. He expanded his lead on the second and most difficult stage in Luthern.
In this stage the Russian did a masterpiece ride. He caught up with solo leader Arthur Vichot by reeling back more than one minute in only ten kilometres. On the two final stages Kritskiy never risked to lose his comfortable lead as his team was very solid. Both stages ended in bunch sprints.
The only trouble for the team was before the race, when they were held back at the French-Swiss border due to visa problems of one of their riders. But they managed to make the start just in time.
For the organisers of the GP Tell the future of the race is unclear. The unpleasant experiences of last year, where Anton Reshetnikov won the race, though he had been tested positively on carphedone in July, are still not forgotten. The UCI never took a stand on the case, which prompted the Swiss organisers to refuse to hold the event this year as a part of the UCI nation's cup.
