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