A long lasting leading group with 3 riders finally didn't continue till the finish in the 3rd stage of the Tour of Switzerland 2010 today. At the end of the stage Fränk Schleck attacked in the final climb before the finish and thus won the stage. Fabian Cancellara, who arrived 7 seconds after the stage winner loses his yellow jersey for one second to the German rider Tony Martin.

The summary of the 3rd stage, Sierre > Schwarzenburg, of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland

Already the 3rd stage of this Tour of Switzerland 2010 who has a total of 9 stage. The stage was quite similar to yesterday's stage with a 1st category climb half-way and a 3rd category climb towards the end. The difference was in the final which was a lot steeper than yesterday.
With its start in the finish city of yesterday's stage, Sierre, and a finish in Schwarzenburg 196.6 kilometers further, the stage started in a slow descent towards Aigle where the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is located. That's where the riders started the climb of the Col des Mosses up to its top at 1,445 meters altitude. The rest of the stage was a bit hilly with at the end in the circuit around the finish city a 3rd category climb, in Kalchstätten (check out the parcours in my article The 2010 Tour of Switzerland route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route and time schedule).

Since Peter Sagan (photo, Liquigas-Doimo), Joao Correia (Cervélo TestTeam), Dominik Nerz (Team Milram) and Pedro Merino (Footon-Servetto) didn't start today and Laurens ten Dam (Rabobank) gave up yesterday after a heavy fall (which costs him his Tour de France 2010), 162 riders came to the start of the stage in Sierre.

In the first kilometers of the stage, several attempts to escape could be seen, all remained without succes until the one by Alexandr Pliuschin (Katusha Team), Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) and Ermanno Capelli (Footon-Servetto) around 20 kilometers after the start.
This leading trio rapidly creates a gap in the downhill part where all riders were going quite fast. At the foot of the Col des Mosses in Aigle, their gap is 14'06". The three riders continue to collaborate in the climb and to get the time gap up to 15 minutes; on the top their gap is 14'20" and Alexandr Pliuschin is the first to start the descent, just before Ermanno Capelli and Jussi Veikkanen while in the peloton Aitor Hernandez passes on top before the polka dot jersey Mathias Frank.

Team Saxo Bank of the general classification leader Fabian Cancellara than started the pursuit and when the three leading riders don't really collaborate anymore in the last 50 kilometers, their gap goes down quite quickly, to 2 minutes at the sprint in Heitenried (at 5 kilometers from the first crossing of the finish line). This sprint is won by Emmano Capelli.
While approaching the finish line for the first time, Alexandr Pliuschin attacks from the leading group and the Moldavian rider crosses the finish line first, 30 seconds ahead of Veikkanen and a bit more on Capelli. The peloton follows the leading rider at 1'18" and takes back the two other riders a few kilometers further. Pliuschin arrives alone on top of the climb in Kalchstätten. He thus takes the polka dot jersey for the King of the Mountains classification from Mathias Frank (BMC Racing Team) before he's taken back by the peloton at 22 kilometers from the finish.

From the grouped peloton several riders attack, especially Michael Albasini (HTC-Columbia) and Luis Léon Sanchez (photo, Caisse d'Epargne), but at 4 kilometers from the finish the whole peloton is back together. In the climb towards the finish it's up to the Irish Champion Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) to attack. He did however not count on Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) who gets over him as if he was not moving and finally wins the stage. Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) followed directly behind the rider from Luxembourg. Bauke Mollema (Rabobank won the sprint in the group which also contained Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and which crossed the finish line 3 seconds behind Schleck.

During this stage David Vitoria and Fabio Felline for Footon-Servetto and Valerio Agnoli for the Liquigas-Doimo team gave up and the Dutch rider Joost van Leijen (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team), who started out the leading group yesterday, arrived too late.

The comments from the winner, Fränk Schleck

After the finish, the oldest of the Schleck brothers was happy with his stage victory and concerning his team mate losing the yellow leader's jersey he simply added: Fabian won the first stage and he's only one second behind Martin. I know him and I know he hasn't said his last word yet.

The classifications of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland after the 3rd stage

The stage classification for Sierre > Schwarzenburg

Here's the top 10 of this stage:

1/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - 5h02'21" (39,014 km/h)
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne)
3/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) - +0'03"
4/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team)
5/ Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
6/ Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank)
7/ Robert Gesink (Rabobank)
8/ Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky)
9/ Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale)
10/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia)

General classification

Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), number 2 in the 2009 Tour of Switzerland, was 3 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) before the stage this morning. Since the Swiss rider arrived 4 seconds behind the group with Bauke Mollema and Tony Martin, he loses his yellow jersey for one second to the German rider:

1/ Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) - 9h38'04"
2/ Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'01"
3/ Thomas Löfkvist (Team Sky) - +0'09"
4/ Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d'Epargne) - +0'10"
5/ Dries Devenijns (Quick Step) - +0'11"
6/ Fränk Schleck (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'13"
7/ Jakob Fuglsang (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'14"
8/ Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team) - +0'14"
9/ Nicolas Castroviejo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +0'15"
10/ Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) - +0'17"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour of Switzerland | Tour of Switzerland 2010 | UCI ProTour

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