Blink and Miss...

Rui da Costa shown here winning stage 8 of the 2011 Tour de France,

today claimed the second stage of the 2012 Tour de Suisse

Not a lot of opportunity to pause and catch your breath this time of year. Blink and you will miss something. European races have hit their stride with overlapping weeklong Tours competing as warm-ups for The Tour to come in less than a month. Just this weekend alone Bradley Wiggins claimed his second Criterium du Dauphine crown, and is looking a very serious threat to Cadel Evans' chances for a repeat in Le Grande Boucle. Meanwhile, during the second day at the Tour de Suisse, the contenders in that challenging Tour made their first moves on the slopes of the Verbier. With 8km to go, Rabobank's Laurens Ten Dam, initiated the first serious attack. The Radioshack Team was having none of that though, kept the leash taut, and quickly pulled him back. Two kilometers later we saw why, as Frank Schleck unleashed a big attack of his own. The move failed to entice any response from the others and Schleck built himself a 32 second gap by the 4km mark. At that point a series of counterattacks from the chasers, including John Gadret, Tom Danielson, and ultimately Movistar rider Rui da Costa were launched. While Ten Dam, the initial instigator, fell backwards with great strings of drool hanging from his gasping mouth (no one drools as well as Laurens when he is giving it his all), da Costa managed to catch the slowing Frank Schleck with 150 meters to the line to claim a perfectly timed stage 2 win. Sixteen seconds off the pace, another promising finish for Nicolas Roche in 6th, and fellow AG2R rider John Gadret 8th with the same time. None of my English language options seemed to be working for the morning stage, so I opted for the French, which was rather appropriate. Plus, the great Directeur, Cyrille Guimard, was one of the commentators. It is hard to match the Swiss Tour for epic mountain stages; it should be a week of excitement.