Leipheimer erases deficit to Cunego, wins overall

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There was heartbreak for Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) on the final stage of the Tour de Suisse as he lost his overall lead to Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) by four scant seconds. Cunego conceded over two minutes in the 32.1km time trial, and the American duly snatched the yellow jersey of race winner.

As expected, world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) thrashed his way around the course to win the stage, albeit with a smaller than anticipated margin of victory, but the day’s drama was provided by the Leipheimer-Cunego duel.

Ahead of Friday’s final mountain stage, Cunego had hinted that he needed to put a little more distance between himself and Leipheimer. He failed to do so, and his words would prove to be prescient as Leipheimer chipped away steadily at Cunego’s 1:59 advantage early on, before forcing the issue over the central section of the course.

Leipheimer began the day in 4th place overall, but with neither Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) nor Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek) likely to put much time into Cunego, he was always going to be the Italian’s major rival. He ripped out of the start house in a determined mood, and instantly looked at ease on the flat opening section.

When Cunego rolled down the ramp six minutes later, the contrast in styles was immediately apparent. Where Leipheimer scarcely broke from his tucked position over the 32.1km, Cunego was battling with his machine from the off, desperately trying to push the big time trial gear.

That said, the 2004 Giro d’Italia winner put in a fiery opening salvo and had lost only a quarter of his two-minute cushion at the first time check after 9km. Leipheimer was second fastest behind his teammate Andreas Klöden at that point, but a big effort from Cunego saw him limit his early losses to 28 seconds.

At this stage, Cunego was losing just over 3 seconds a kilometre, but Leipheimer needed to bring that figure closer to 4 seconds to overtake him on the overall standings, and he upped the pace accordingly between the two intermediate time checks.

Leipheimer attacked the long drags that marked the mid-section of the course with only the mildest discernible sway of the shoulders, and the contrast in styles with the flagging Cunego was becoming ever more apparent. Cunego was constantly shifting in his saddle and appeared over-geared as he struggled to find a comfortable position, whereas Leipheimer was now feathering the pedals with alarming facility.

The numbers confirmed what the eye suggested at the second time check, 22.9km into the stage. There, Cunego found himself 1:26 down on Leipheimer, who was now gaining 3.75 seconds per kilometre and looking set to take possession of the yellow jersey.

To his credit, Cunego refused to yield, and scrambled to defend his dwindling 33-second advantage over the final 9km. As Leipheimer crossed the finish line in 3rd place on the day, 13 seconds down on Cancellara, it briefly looked as though he may have misjudged his effort. He had been two seconds ahead of the Swiss rider at the final time check, and Leipheimer must have wondered if he had expended too much energy in the middle of the course.

He was left with a nervous wait for Cunego, who was surely aware that he was on the cusp of losing out on his biggest stage race win in seven years. The Lampre man swayed from side to side as he grimly looked to hold on to his advantage. Hurtling under the red kite, it was all still to play for, but he ultimately floundered on the seemingly unending finishing straight, to come home four seconds shy of defending his overall lead.

Graciously, the Italian’s first action on crossing the line was to seek out Leipheimer and congratulate him on his victory. But as he pushed away the television cameras and gathered his thoughts, Cunego must surely have been ruing the seconds lost when he failed to hold Leipheimer’s wheel on the final push to the line at Triesenberg/Malbun on Thursday.

Schleck drops to 7th

Understandably, the Cunego-Leipheimer battle dominated the limelight on Sunday afternoon, but matters were tight enough elsewhere to see a significant shake-up lower down in the general classification.

While Leipheimer leapfrogged Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) en route to overall victory, the young Dutchman put in a solid ride to secure the third place on the podium. He rode well to finish 19th on the stage, although his margin was far closer than he might have expected as Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard Trek) scorched around the course to finish 7th on the day.

Had the stage been a few kilometres longer, the Dane could even have forced his way onto the podium, but he had to settle for 4th place, 8 seconds behind Kruijswijk.

It was a disastrous afternoon for Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek), however, who finished a lowly 60th at over three minutes, and dropped to 7th place in the overall standings. His brother Andy had no overall aspirations, but was expected to take advantage of the stage to check on his time trialling form ahead of the Tour, but the signs were hardly more encouraging for the younger Schleck, who lost 2:32.

Elsewhere, Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) held on to 5th place overall, while Mathias Frank (BMC) was the best-placed home rider in 6th. A strong showing put Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo) into 9th overall, while his fellow countryman Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) slipped out of the top ten after finishing on a standard road bike.

Klöden versus Cancellara

Before the battle for the overall placings began in earnest, two time trialling heavyweights slugged it out for the stage victory. Fabian Cancellara may have sealed the victory, but he was forced to work hard for it over the final 9km after Andreas Klöden threatened to spring a surprise.

Cancellara was among the early starters, and when he smashed past his three-minute man Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) en route to recording the quickest time at the finish, it looked like it was business as usual for the Swiss.

However, he only had 25 seconds over RadioShack’s Nelson Oliveira, and the American team would go on to take three of the top four positions on the day. Oliveira’s teammate Klöden was the best-placed of the trio, and over the opening 22km, he threatened to eclipse Cancellara.

Klöden scorched through the first check 5 seconds ahead of Cancellara, and tacked on a further two seconds at the 22km-mark. The German showed few outward signs of suffering as he negotiated the long false flats that marked the course, but like Leipheimer, he simply couldn’t match Cancellara’s power on the downhill sections in the final 10km, and came home 9 seconds down in third.

The Tour de Suisse belonged to RadioShack, however, as the 37-year-old Leipheimer became just the latest of Johan Bruyneel’s band of veterans to cruise to a very notable stage race success in 2011.