– What Happened –
The countdown and build-up to the Tour de France begins in earnest this week, with the big-name favourites for overall victory in July fine-tuning their form at the Critérium du Dauphiné in and around the French Alps. The eight days of racing end on Sunday with the final 151km mountain stage from Le Pont-de-Claix to Superdévoluy. Other riders will test their form at the Tour de Suisse, which begins on Saturday in Baar, as all the roads of the UCI WorldTour now lead to Le Tour.
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) showed his form and intentions for the summer by winning the opening time trial of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Sunday. The prologue stage was an unusual four-kilometre mountain climb from the Les Gets ski resort to Mont Chéry. The Spaniard confirmed he will race for at least another two years on Saturday but said he will only reveal his future team when the official UCI transfer window opens on August 1.
Contador beat Australia’s Richie Porte (BMC) by six seconds, with Chris Froome (Team Sky) third at 13 seconds. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Fabio Aru (Astana) finished a minute back and so will have to go on the attack during the week of racing if they want to challenge for overall victory and the UCI WorldTour ranking points that are awarded after the race.
With no WorldTour races completed since the Giro d’Italia, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) continues to lead both the UCI WorldTour ranking and the rolling UCI World Rankings. Spain and Tinkoff remain in command of the UCI WorldTour nations and teams classifications. France continues to dominate the UCI World Ranking’s nations classification.
– What’s Next –
UCI WorldTour: Tour de Suisse / June 11th – 19th
– What you should know about… Tour de Suisse –
The Tour de Suisse is arguably professional cycling’s fourth biggest national tour after the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana grand tours.
This year’s race is the 80th edition of the Tour de Suisse but will be the last of national hero Fabian Cancellara, who has won numerous stages and who won the overall classification in 2009.
Austria’s Max Bulla was the first ever winner of the Tour de Suisse in 1933, with Simon Špilak the last in 2015. The rider with most overall victories is Italian Pasquale Fornara, with four wins in the fifties.
This year’s race starts with a 6.4km prologue time trial in Baar, in the north of Switzerland and includes three stages for the sprinters, a 16.8km time trial around Davos and four mountain stages. The Tour de Suisse often climbs some of the highest roads in Europe and again visits Austria for the mountain finish on the edge of the Rettenbach glacier at a breath taking altitude of 2675 metres. The 2016 Tour de Suisse ends with a spectacular mountain stage to Davos that includes the Albula and Flüela passes.
The 22-team start list includes the 18 UCI WorldTour teams plus four wild card teams: CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice, Roompot-Oranje Peloton, Team Roth and Verva Active Jet.
– Photo of the week –
Top 25 WorldTour Rankings – Riders
1 (1) Peter SAGAN Slovakia TNK 26 2283 2 (2) Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE Spain MOV 36 1769 3 (3) Vincenzo NIBALI Italy AST 32 1448.75 4 (4) Fabian CANCELLARA Switzerland TFS 35 1429 5 (5) Nairo Alexander QUINTANA ROJAS Colombia MOV 26 1420.25 6 (6) Thibaut PINOT France FDJ 26 1386 7 (7) Greg VAN AVERMAET Belgium BMC 31 1353 8 (8) Alexander KRISTOFF Norway KAT 29 1324 9 (9) Alberto CONTADOR VELASCO Spain TNK 34 1317 10 (12) Bryan COQUARD France DEN 24 1276 11 (10) Sep VANMARCKE Belgium TLJ 28 1130 12 (11) Ilnur ZAKARIN Russia KAT 27 1125 13 (13) Diego ULISSI Italy LAM 27 1057 14 (14) Sergio Luis HENAO MONTOYA Colombia SKY 29 1049 15 (15) Richie PORTE Australia BMC 31 1048 16 (16) Wout POELS Netherlands SKY 29 1031 17 (17) Nacer BOUHANNI France COF 26 1012 18 (18) Enrico GASPAROTTO Italy WGG 34 998 19 (19) Jon IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Spain MOV 27 986 20 (20) Sonny COLBRELLI Italy BAR 26 962 21 (21) Baptiste PLANCKAERT Belgium WBC 28 941 22 (22) Rui Alberto FARIA DA COSTA Portugal LAM 30 933 23 (23) Arnaud DEMARE France FDJ 25 915 24 (24) Simon GERRANS Australia OGE 36 863 25 (25) Jhoan Esteban CHAVES RUBIO Colombia OGE 26 853
Top 25 WorldTour Rankings – Nations
1 (1) FRANCE FRA FRA 7076 2 (4) ITALY ITA ITA 6776.75 3 (3) SPAIN ESP ESP 6353 4 (2) BELGIUM BEL BEL 5867 5 (7) COLOMBIA COL COL 4842.5 6 (5) AUSTRALIA AUS AUS 4437.5 7 (8) NETHERLANDS NED NED 4408 8 (6) GREAT BRITAIN GBR GBR 3933 9 (9) NORWAY NOR NOR 3219 10 (10) SWITZERLAND SUI SUI 3170 11 (12) RUSSIA RUS RUS 2786 12 (11) SLOVAKIA SVK SVK 2596.5 13 (14) GERMANY GER GER 2520 14 (17) POLAND POL POL 2122.5 15 (13) CZECH REPUBLIC CZE CZE 2102 16 (15) PORTUGAL POR POR 1894 17 (16) DENMARK DEN DEN 1763.5 18 (18) UNITED STATES USA USA 1414 19 (19) ERITREA ERI ERI 1252 20 (21) SLOVENIA SLO SLO 1236 21 (20) IRELAND IRL IRL 1216 22 (23) NEW ZEALAND NZL NZL 1047.25 23 (22) IRAN IRI IRI 1045 24 (24) ALGERIA ALG ALG 1009 25 (31) LUXEMBOURG LUX LUX 996
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