Cancellara wins Tour de Suisse prologue
Rain began to fall as Fabian Cancellara readied on the start ramp for the 6.4-kilometer prologue that opened the Tour de Suisse Saturday, adding an extra difficulty to the technical course but not preventing him from winning in a time of seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds, a mere six-hundredths of a second faster than Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal).
"It was not fun to be standing on the start ramp and seeing the rain," said Cancellara. "You know that it will be wet roads, and I knew then it would be like a poker game. Honestly, I was really nervous for today, and for me, it was really important to win. For many reasons: it's a home race, my last time here, the history…"
Rain fell on and off during the race, and an ominous sky ahead of Cancellara's start – the second last rider to tackle the tricky course – had the team's mechanics ready with wheels for dry and wet roads.
Cancellara: "I had wheels ready at the start for wet and dry and in the end I took the tires for the dry because super slick goes better. But then I had wet roads on some of the corners, and it was hard to maintain the rhythm, the speed. I had rain from the climb to the chicane – around 2 kilometers, and the downhill was wet."
The wet roads did hinder Cancellara, who was eight seconds behind the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint at 3.2 kilometers, but he slowly gained ground back in the latter part of the course. In the final meters, knowing it would be close, he sprinted out of the saddle, and with a bike throw at the line eked out the victory by the narrowest of margins.
Cancellara: "In the end, I did what I could, and it worked out. Having a win in my last Tour de Suisse means a lot, this stands out. I will enjoy the night and the day tomorrow in the yellow. I will do what I can to try and defend, but it's going to be a hard week, but we go on in yellow tomorrow, and that is what is nice."
The day started out in rainy weather conditions, which probably held back the early starting riders from going full-speed in some of the slippery corners. Reto Hollenstein (IAM Cycling) was the first rider to put in a strong reference time as he completed the course in 07:52 minutes. The Swiss rider occupied the hot-seat for about an hour until first Yves Lampaert (Etixx - Quick-Step) and then Wilco Kelderman (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) crossed the line four seconds faster. Kelderman held on to the lead for a while, but as the rainy clouds disappeared and the wet roads dried up, it was almost inevitable that the Dutch time trial champion would see his time beaten by the late starting favorites.
Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) and Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) both enjoyed time in the hot-seat before Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto Soudal) stormed through the course in 07:39 minutes. Shortly after, it started raining again and when Cancellara was eight seconds down at the intermediate time check, Roelandts could almost taste the victory. However, with the extra motivation of taking the yellow jersey in the his final Tour de Suisse, Cancellara managed to put every last bit of power through the pedals to beat Roelandts by just one second on the line. Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEdge) finished third on the stage, two seconds behind Cancellara.
Amongst the top favorites for the general classification, Ion Izagirre (Movistar) came out best as he took fifth place in the prologue. Last year’s winner, Simon Spilak (Katusha) finished 31 seconds down in 64th place.
Today’s victory is Cancellara’s 11th Tour de Suisse stage win and the sixth time he will wear the leader’s jersey after the opening stage.
On Sunday, Tour de Suisse continues with an undulating stage around Baar with the peloton will take on a 47 km circuit four times. The main struggle for the riders is a 5.4 km long category 2 climb with an average gradient of 4.2 %. However, as it’s located rather early on the circuit, the fast riders should be able to make it over in time for the final sprint. Expect the riders to finish between 17:00-17:30 CET.
Stage 1 2016 Tour of Suisse Results
1 CANCELLARA Fabian 11 Trek - Segafredo 07:38.800
2 ROELANDTS Jurgen 105 Lotto Soudal 01
3 DURBRIDGE Luke 23 Orica Greenedge 02
4 *ELMIGER Martin 144 Iam Cycling 06
5 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Jon 171 Movistar Team ST
6 WELLENS Tim 101 Lotto Soudal 07
7 LE BON Johan 134 Fdj 09
8 *DILLIER Silvan 33 Bmc Racing Team ST
9 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka 176 Movistar Team 10
10 KELDERMAN Wilco 65 Team Lotto Nl - Jumbo ST
11 LAMPAERT Yves 116 Etixx - Quick Step ST
12 MARTENS Paul 67 Team Lotto Nl - Jumbo 12
13 VAKOC Petr 115 Etixx - Quick Step ST
14 THOMAS Geraint 51 Team Sky ST
15 GESCHKE Simon 83 Team Giant - Alpecin 13
16 HOLLENSTEIN Reto 145 Iam Cycling 14
17 STUYVEN Jasper 17 Trek - Segafredo ST
18 LINDEMAN Bert-Jan 66 Team Lotto Nl - Jumbo ST
19 BOARO Manuele 48 Tinkoff ST
20 TANKINK Bram 68 Team Lotto Nl - Jumbo 16
Stage 7 to Nuits-Saint-Georges
7:00 USA, 12:00 UK, 13:00 EU
