Rui Costa (Movistar) won the 2012 Tour de Suisse after retaining a 14-second margin over Frank Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) on the final stage.
The Portuguese finished in the bunch at the end of a gruelling stage, won by Tanel Kangert (Astana) from a breakaway.
With two hors categorie climbs, the 215.8km ninth stage from Näfels to Lintharenato was never going to be easy, but Costa, with the help of team leader, Alejandro Valverde, kept control and finished the stage with an unthreatened advantage over his closest rivals, with Schleck second overall and Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 21 seconds adrift in third.
Costa said he hadn’t been certain how he would recover from his exertions on stage eight, where he said he had struggled after his efforts in the previous day’s time trial.
“Together with my stage win in the Tour, this is my most important triumph and the one I’m going to enjoy the most for all efforts we had to take. I want to dedicate this to all the team, because they made a magnificent labor all week. I have no words to describe it,” he said.
Runner up, Schleck, made a bid for victory on the Glaubenberg, an hors categorie slope of 1,543 metres, with just 40 kilometres to go.
But after cresting the summit of the penultimate climb alone, Schleck saw an advantage of almost a minute whittled away on the descent and chose to wait for his rivals in the yellow jersey group before ascending to the summit finish on the category two Sorenberg.
Schleck said he was satisfied with his performance and had no regrets.
“I know I gave it everything I had to try to win it. We only had one option [on the final stage] and we played it. It was the only point in the race where we had a chance to win it, so I was all in,” he said.
An elite group containing Costa, Schleck, Leipheimer, Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Tour of California winner, Robert Gesink (Rabobank), began the final climb together.
With overall victory within the grasp of three men, one might have expected fireworks on the climb up to Sorenburg, but Valverde’s pacemaking kept attacks at bay and checked an early assault from Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) and Mathias Frank (BMC Racing).
Tour de Suisse 2012 stage nine – result
1) Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana – 5.54.22
2) Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat + 2”
3) Matteo Montaguti (ITA) – AG2R-La Mondiale +31”
4) Robert Kiserlovski (CRO) – Astana +1.46
5) Steven Kruijswijk (NED) – Rabobank
6) Mathias Frank (SWI) – BMC Racing
7) Chris Anker Sörensen (DEN) – Saxo Bank
8) Frank Schleck (LUX) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek +1.48
9) Robert Gesink (NED) – Rabobank
10) Rui Costa (Por) – Movistar
General classification
1) Rui Costa (POR) – Movistar – 35.54.49
2) Frank Schleck (LUX) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek +14”
3) Levi Leipheimer (USA) – Omega Pharma-QuickStep +21”
4) Robert Gesink (NED) Rabobank Cycling Team +25”
5) Mikel Nieve (SPA) – Euskaltel-Euskadi +40”
6) Roman Kreuziger (CZE) – Astana +47”
7) Thomas Danielson (USA) – Garmin-Barracuda +48”
8) Steven Kruijswijk (NED) – Raboban +59”
9) Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (SPA) – Movistar Team +1.42
10) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – AG2R-La Mondiale -1.52
