Costa steals Schleck's thunder in Verbier

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Rui Costa (Movistar) delivered a master class in timing to win stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse with an attack on the final slopes up to Verbier. The Portuguese rider attacked inside the final two kilometres of the climb, reeling in Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) who had attacked with six kilometres to go. After making the catch inside the final 200 meters Schleck had little energy for the sprint and was forced to settle for second. Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) finished third.

Costa’s win shifted him into the race’s overall lead after stage 1 winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) sat up with 12 kilometres to go.

Unlike the Dauphine, a race that this year shied away from a mountain top finish, the Tour de Suisse made no bones about including such stage conclusions, with a climb to Verbier featuring on the second stage.

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Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1 – Sanofi) and Ryan Anderson (Spidertech powered by C10) were the early breakaway and it took a concerted effort from a number of teams, including a clearly motivated RadioShack, to bring them in check.

The pair were brought to check inside the final 30 kilometres as rain began to fall and the final climb loomed over the GC pretenders. On the early slopes RadioShack began unsettling a number of riders. As expected, Peter Sagan and his sprint rivals were quickly eliminated as Linus Gerdemann, Jakob Fuglsang and Maxime Monfort set the pace.

With 6 kilometres to go and the leading group already thinned to less than 40 riders, Schleck attacked. Within one kilometre the climber had established a 22 second buffer as Lampre struggled to mount a significant chase for Damiano Cunego.

John Gadret (AG2R) in his pink overshoes became frustrated, flying from the struggling bunch in a  bid to match and catch Schleck but all his move proved to do was drop Robert Gesink (Rabobank).

Tom Danielson (Garmin-Barracuda) took off and found himself alone, rather than initiating a serious attack, but he briefly persisted as the race went under the 2km to go banner. His move was the catalyst for Costa, who closed the gap and quickly dismantled Schleck’s lead.

The Portuguese rider, the only cyclist allocated Olympic funding for 2012, and winner of a stage in last year’s Tour ,caught the RadioShack rider inside the final 200 meters and as the line approached was the first to open his sprint. Schleck attempted to respond but was no match for the Movistar man.

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