Going into stage four of the Tour De Suisse, Tony Martin from HTC was riding in first place. Today’s stage took the riders from Schwarzenburg to Wettingen. This 166-kilometer ride featured rolling hills and a circuit around Wettingen that was completed twice. This stage was set up to be one of the best sprint stages of the Tour de Suisse, with two category 3 climbs and a flat finish. The category 3 climb at Regensburg was 1900 meters long at an average of 5.6% and a maximum gradient of 9%.
The day began with a quick escape from Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Valeriy Dmitriyev (Astana), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) and Björn Schroder (Milram), but they were immediately pulled back. Following this breakaway, just 10 kilometers into the day, Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil) went on a solo attack. At around 150 kilometer to go, Brice had built up a gap of 9’23” on the peloton. At this point the boys from HTC got organized and started to chase. HTC was motivated to retain Tony Martin’s lead and to place Mark Cavendish well for the sprint finish. HTC, eventually with Euskaltel-Euskadi’s help, brought back Feillu. With 25 kilometers to go, Feillu was caught; he had managed to ride 155 kilometers alone out in front.
Due to the narrow streets in Wettingen, there was a crash with 30 kilometers to go that involved Westra, Jose Luis Arrieta (Ag2r) and Artur Gajek (Milram).
There was one set of sprint points awarded during the day and these went to Feillu, Hayden Roulston (HTC) and Michael Albasini (HTC). Shortly after the second pass over the Regensberg, Poels (Vacansoleil) jumped out in front. Phillippe Gilbert (Lotto) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) quickly followed. Hesjedal descended the fastest and soon was out in front of the peloton by himself. With 13 kilometers to go, Hesjedal had 17 seconds on the peloton and it looked like he could stay away, but once the peloton hit the 10 kilometers mark, led by Quickstep, Hesjedal was brought back.
Leading into the finish, the day was set for a perfect sprint finish. HTC took over the lead from Quickstep and set a pace that stretched out the peloton into a long single file line. In the final 3 kilometers, several riders attempted to breakaway but none succeeded. With 1 kilometer to go, the lead sprinters took off, with Cavendish sprinting ahead but he and Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) picked the same line, wheels touched and they went down, bringing down much of the front of the peloton with them; riders were thrown over handlebars and bouncing off pavement. This terrible crash eliminated the sprint finish.
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) managed to make it through the crash without going down and went on to win the stage. He crossed the finish line without celebrating.
Shortly after the finish, Haussler was seen walking around with an extremely torn and blooded jersey and there were multiple ambulances at the finish treating other riders. As of press time, all Team RadioShack riders appear fine and it is believed that all will start tomorrow. No word on the injured riders as of press time.
By Fitzalan Gorman, staff writer
That was really a terrible crash!
Thanks God our team was not involved!
Good luck and stay focused!
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