Rider of the Race

Despite the ebb and flow of stage winners and jersey wearers over the nine stages, this was an easy pick for me. On stage 4, on a mostly flat first half from Bern to the mountain finish in Villars-sur-Ollon, Larry Warbasse, an American rider on ProConti squad Aqua Blue Sport, broke away with three other riders after two kilometres and built an advantage of more than seven minutes. On the slopes of the final 10km climb, Larry dropped the last of his break-mates, cutting a lone yet determined figure as he battled both gravity and the now-fractured, fast-advancing small group of contenders. Within the last kilometre, the gap was under a minute but Larry knew the day was his and, urged on by the crowd (and unbeknown heavy support on Twitter), he gave one last surge to solo victorious across the line, arms aloft to record his and his team’s first ever WorldTour victory. How good was that? It was EPIC!

Prior to the departure of stage 4, having spent three weeks training at altitude beforehand, Larry was feeling confident, sure his climbing legs wouldn’t let him down. He even told his team-mates he intended to go for the win, and came good on that promise.

Post-race Larry wept  – as did we all – as he said:

It’s my first victory in my career – it’s amazing I love this race, I love Switzerland. I was on IAM Cycling the last two years, and it’s one of the most beautiful countries and I have so many great memories here. Today I felt like it was my home race. I’ve never had so many people cheering for me, everyone was yelling my name. I’m really happy. As soon as I got in the breakaway, I knew – I told everyone yesterday, I worked really hard the whole last season – I always give 110 per cent, I’m just so happy it finally paid off.

Seems the peloton and Twitter agreed with me as there was universal approval of Larry’s maiden win!

Unusually, I’m going to let Larry have the last few words!

A fine Bromance!

Aqua Blue’s Tour de Suisse doesn’t start and finish with Warbasse. Lasse Norman Hansen took home the King of the Mountain’s jersey after besting Roompot’s Nick Van Der Lijke on the penultimate day’s superfast 100km, eight lap, full speed sprint around the outskirts of Schaffhausen, which gave him an unassailable 9pt lead. Not too shabby for a former Olympic champion, more at home on the track than in the mountains. The Tour de Suisse mascot seemed to agree as he, once again,  enthusiastically embraced Lasse.

Fresh Faces

The race often confirms promise shown by new and newish faces in the earlier part of the season and this edition was no exception. Movistarlet Marc Soler (23) finished eighth overall, courtesy of three top-ten stage finishes, underlining the promise he’d shown as a neo-pro and his third-place finish in this year’s Volta a Catalunya.

A little further down the GC we find Tao Geoghegan Hart (Sky) who finished 14th despite riding in support of teammate Mikel Nieve. In his first year with Sky, he’s also finished eighth on GC at Amgen Tour of California. Tao was one of VeloVoices original #youngdudes whom we interviewed  back in 2013.

Rider of the race last year, defending champion Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) sadly crashed out on the descent from the Simplon Pass on Stage 5. Fortunately, he avoided any major injures, just a fractured right thumb.

Le roi de Suisse