Tour of Switzerland - spoiler tags must be used

dastardly00

Lone breakaway rider Albasini has the stage in the bag. Less than 3km left and he has around 3 minutes. The last couple of km are flat-ish. Frank Schleck has attacked out of the main bunch with Leipheimer and Nieve. Nico along with Danielson, Gesink, Lokvist and a few others are about 15 seconds back. Rui Da Costa is about 20 seconds behind Roche group.

flying11

Roche has now been dropped from the Danielson group and has fallen back to the group with Rui Costa about 40 seconds behind Frank Schelk

flying11

Not a bad ride from Roche, finished 11th on the stage but he is still outside the top 10 overall

dastardly00

Stage result:
1 Michael Albasini (Swi) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team 3:45:39
2 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:01:15
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma - QuickStep 0:01:15
4 Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan 0:01:15
5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:36
6 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat 0:01:36
7 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:01:36
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:39
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:01:57
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) RadioShack-Nissan 0:01:57
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:05


General classification after stage 8:
1 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team 29:58:39
2 Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:14
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma - QuickStep 0:00:21
4 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:25
5 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:00:40
6 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:00:42
7 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:43
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:01
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:04
10 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat 0:01:13


13 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:52

dastardly00

It's all after kicking off here big time on the final stage!
The leaders have reached the top of the Glaubenburg HC climb and are descending.

A breakaway group (Kangert, Roy and Montaguti) is at the front of the race.
Bookwalter was in the breakaway group but he has been dropped.
Frank Schleck attacked a while ago as in 5th position, and has just reached the summit.
About 30 seconds behind is Danielson.
About another 30 seconds is the group of Rui Costa, Nieve, Gesink, Valverde, Leipheimer, and Nico.
Nico was dropped but he made it back to the Rui Costa group.
Kreuziger was dropped earlier on the climb.

The breakaway group has a lead of over 4 minutes with 36km left

dastardly00

This is where they are currently:

Inquitus

Schleck is holding his 50 sec lead so far on the descent. Good job by Nico getting back on when he was dropped, gotta be in with a good chance of getting into the top 10 here now. There's a good few people who were in front of him who are now nowhere.

dastardly00

It's all come back together. A group including Kreuziiger and Sorenson has caught the yellow jersey group.
Schleck has slowed down and sat up, allowing himself to be caught by the yellow jersey group.
20km left.

maloner

Roche 10th overall

dastardly00

Final overall standings:
1 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team 35:54:49
2 Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:14
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma - QuickStep 0:00:21
4 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:25
5 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:00:40
6 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:00:47
7 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:00:48
8 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:59
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:42
10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:52


Good result by Nico to squeeze into the top 10. All the riders ahead of him are very good. Hopefully he can bring this form into the TdF.
He still needs to improve in TT though.