2014 Tour de Suisse: Stage 9: Martigny→Saas-Fee (156.7 Km)

[deValtos]

Smart riding by Costa.

Feel bad for Tony and Frank though

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Chaves a lot worse today.

 

[Hugo87]

I am in if Frank does this right he can gain time on Rui Costa camp. Pinot his allie here as no doubting he is a better climber than Rui Costa but has a lot more time to try make up.

Costa is the better climber? He is more of an all-rounder imo. Frank is a pure climber.

LOLWUT is so 2009, btw.

I also see Frank as the top favorite to win this Tour de Suisse. He just looks really strong, and i think he's better climber then Costa, but by a small margin. However, 11 seconds is not impossible for him at all to make up.

I was expecting this kind of performance from Rui Costa (it was and still is my pick to win Tour de Suisse), he's gonna here 3-Peat I hope, not fail like Miami did.

Best WT result from Frank is a 4th place this year on Romandie and Costa already won 2 Tour de Suisse destroying a field of climbers like this http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_Suisse_2012_Stage_1_Verbier (Frank 23th at 1.28 m) and this http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_Suisse_2013_Stage_7_La_Punt (Frank 9th at 22 sec)

It's Frank that must prove that's better climber than Costa, because Costa has beaten Frank every year consistently.

No doubt who's the best climber now, the nicest one everyone already knew.

People keep underrating The World Champion.

Cardoso and Rui

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No doubt here. Costa was always the strongest climber to me. The only question was his form after Verbier. No doubt now

 

[Hugo87]

No doubt here. Costa was always the strongest climber to me. The only question was his form after Verbier. No doubt now

I still think that Mollema and Kreuziger are better on GT's, but Kreuziger will be burned a little on the Saxo Train.

Mollema will be at higher level on Le Tour and his past results speak for themselves, we just don't have enough data to exactly know the true potencial of Costa on GT's, after this edition being the solo leader we'll know. Right now he's a 1 week specialist and a very good 1 day stage racer.

 

[Pippo_San]

Finally the WORLD CHAMPION!
It was about time we could see him winning a race wearing the rainbow stripes...and in such a fashion!
That was brilliant.
With every luck, we're gonna have an incredible TdF.

 

[Rui Quinta]

It's epic! It's unbelievable we can see a portuguese guy winning Tour de Suisse, once, twice, three times in a row. This time with rainbow jersey and we can listen people yelling "Vamos Rui, Vamos Rui" (Go Rui, Go Rui).

This people are in Suisse for decades and now they have a portuguese guy who is giving them this honor.

 

[trevim]

No doubt who's the best climber now, the nicest one everyone already knew.

People keep underrating The World Champion.

Cardoso and Rui

Great picture. I think this Tour will be the first time we'll see how good he can be over 3 weeks. Mollema and Kreuziger definitely have the edge at this point. If he's not GT material he can always come back to his one week stage races, classics and make a great career out of it.

 

[Hugo87]

Great picture. I think this Tour will be the first time we'll see how good he can be over 3 weeks. Mollema and Kreuziger definitely have the edge at this point. If he's not GT material he can always come back to his one week stage races, classics and make a great career out of it.

Yes, there's so much besides Grand Tours(love them too), why be a possible mediocre anonymous top-15/20 GT rider, when you can be a contender and champion on those kind of races. We'll have our answer at the end of July (hopefully with a non-crash participation).

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Without a doubt Costa went deep today:

Well worth it.

A few more pics here: http://www.steephill.tv/2014/tour-de-suisse/photos/stage-09/

 

[Broth3r]

I would disagree.

 

[MBotero]

I'm not so sure about how great climber is Rui Costa,but no doubt he is the smartest guy around.Great performance for him today,i'm glad he broke that rainbow curse and got the win.

 

[jaylew]

Dombro's turn to show signs of life today. He finished in the Martin group.

 

[manafana]

Rui Costa is a better Gerrans really he got race smarts. He said how bad Saturday was yet he hung on strong. Its been a hard season for him with so much bad luck and just the attention of the rainbow but today he didn't let it get to him.

 

[Escarabajo]

Chaves a lot worse today.

He is still putting kilometers on his legs. Remember that he is coming back from his injury and he is building his base. He is still young and need more and more kilometers.

 

[phanatic]

Caught the highlights, and was happy for Costa to get the stage and overall in style in the rainbow jersey.