11th Tour De Suisse Feminin 1999

Main Page Stage 4, Saturday Sept 25 Circuit race Embrach - Embrach (106.4 km) Second Swiss tour for Sabirowa The Russian rider Sulfia Sabirova claimed her second Tour de Swiss Feminin title following the final fourth stage, a 106.4 km circuit race at Embrach taken out by German sprinter Vera Hohlfeld. In the pouring rain there were no major attacks on the course, particularly since the Russians with Valentina Polkanova had a rider in second place on GC, and with third placed Tatjana Stiashkina (Ukr) 1.22 behind, followed by Switzerland's Barbara Heeb at 1.37, Rasa Polikeviciute a further second behind 1.38 and Nicole Braendli (Swi) at 1.57. "This is for me the most important success of this season," said a pleased Sabirowa, whose principal goals now are the World Championship road race and time trial in the beginning of October in Treviso (time-trial) and Verona. The Swiss tour was her ninth victory of the season. The final stage was only decided over the last few kilometres, as a quartet with the two Germans Judith Arndt and stage winner Hohlfeld, as well as American Lyne Bessette (Ka) and Ukrainian Tatjana Stiaschkina easily dropped the field. Although they belong to different teams, Arndt appeared to let Hohlfeld slip off the front and gave her a second stage win for the tour. Nonetheless, only 54 women started the final stage of the tour, even though there were 144 starters. Many of the riders only entered the race with the intention of pulling out to give themselves sufficient time to recover for the final round of the Womens World Cup, to be held in Embrach the day immediately after the final stage of the Swiss Tour. Report by Karen Kurreck The last stage here was the World Cup course from last year. 2 climbs of about 1.5km per lap and we did 7 laps. One of the climbs was fairly gradual and the other was on a smaller, steeper road. Fall has come to Europe - it rained all night and continued throughout the day. I've been wetter and colder, but it was not exactly pleasant race weather! Luckily since it had been raining all night and the previous nights as well, the pavement was fairly well cleaned up and wasn't slick. I didn't see any crashes. The Russians were riding defense as they had 1st and 2nd overall pretty much locked up. It seemed most of the rest of the field was either satisfied with their current placing or trying to conserve what little they had left for the World Cup. The start was actually really hard - there was an intermediate sprint only about 1km into the race and the Russians went from the gun to lead out Elena Tchalykh who had the jersey. I think we may have lost half the field on the first lap!! If you didn't get a good start position, it was a bit of a shock to the legs! After that, the pace settled somewhat. The main climb was hard because the QOM jersey was on the line and there were sprints every lap, but there weren't a lot of attacks until about the 3rd or 4th lap. At that point there was a short flurry of attacks on the descent and flatter section but the Russians brought everything back. Elizabeth Chevanne-Brunel attacked the last 2 times up the climb but could never get a group clear. The last time up the climb, Anne Samplonious set a wicked pace at the bottom to try to set up Lynne Besseete to get away. Anne pulled off and the pace was hard but the main front group was still a string by the top. Then on the long, shallow descent, a group of 4 got away: Bessette, Vera Hohlfeld, Judith Arndt and Tatiana Stiajhkina. They were dangling right in front of us the last 5km, but managed to stay away by a few seconds with Vera taking her 2nd stage win. Judith Arndt was driving the pace in the break to help Vera. She also raised her arms in victory when Vera won. They are on different teams here but both German. Petra Rossner made her first appearance at the front this week and took the field sprint for 5th. Stage 4 (final stage), Embrach - Embrach, 107.5 km: 1 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 2:56.42 2 Judith Arndt (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 0.04 3 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 4 Tatjana Stiaschkina (Ukr) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 5 Petra Rossner (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 0.09 6 Vanja Vonckx (Bel) Team Vlaanderen 2002 7 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 8 Sigrid Corneo (Ita) S.C. Master Automazione 9 Priska Doppmann (Swi) Switzerland 10 Marion Brauen (Swi) Switzerland 11 Bettina Schoke (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 12 Barbara Heeb (Swi) Team Nuernberger Emmi 13 Leigh Hobson (Can) Canada 14 Solrunn Flataas (Nor) Norway 15 Sandra Rombouts (Ned) Netherlands 16 Karen Kurreck (Usa) Usa 17 Wencke Stensvold (Nor) Norway 18 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 19 Elisabeth Chevanne Brunel (Fra) Gs Omt Lorina Ad54 20 Cindy Pieters (Bel) Team Vlaanderen 2002 21 Chantal Daucourt (Swi) Switzerland 22 Kim Smith (Usa) Usa 23 Rasa Polikeviciute (Lit) Panevezys Ebly 24 Jacqueline Brabenetz (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 25 Annie Gariepy (Can) Canada 26 Geraldine Loewenguth (Fra) France 27 Bogumika Matusiak (Pol) Poland 28 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 29 Sulfia Sabirowa (Rus) Russia 30 Marie Höljer (Swe) Swden 31 Emily Robbina (Usa) Usa 32 Magali Le Floc'h (Fra) France 0.5 33 Karla Polivkova (Cze) Lokomotiva Presov 1.16 34 Laurence Restoin (Fra) Ebly 35 Marcia Eicher Vouets (Sui) S.C. Master Automazione 36 Dorota Czynszak (Pol) Poland 1.33 37 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 38 Lensy Debboundt (Bel) Team Vlaanderen 2002 39 Miho Oki (Jap) Japan 40 Karine Dalmais (Fra) Ebly 41 Kerstin Scheitle (Ger) Team Nuernberger Emmi 42 Margaret Hemsley (Aus) Australia 43 Cornelia Dreher (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 44 Julie Young (Usa) Usa 45 Anne Samplonius (Can) Canada 46 Tina Liebig (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 47 Madeleine Lindberg (Swe) Sweden 14.52 48 Olena Budowitskaja (Ukr) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 21.56 49 Kerry Hellmuth (Usa) S.C. Master Automazione 24.48 50 Denise Baumann (Swi) Switzerland 51 Mirjam Senn (Swi) Gs Zollinger Tigra 52 Anja Albasini (Sui) Team Nuernberger Emmi 53 Mandy Hampel (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 54 Alena Barilova (Svk) Lokomotiva Presov 30.45 Mountain premies - 7.9 km 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 5 2 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 3 3 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 2 4 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 1 Mountain premies - 23.1 km 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 5 2 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 3 3 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 2 4 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 1 Mountain premies - 38.3 km 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 5 2 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 3 3 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 2 4 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 1 Mountain premies - 53.5 km 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 5 2 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 3 3 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 2 4 Kim Smith (Usa) Usa 1 Mountain premies - 68.7 km 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 5 2 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 3 3 Emily Robbina (Usa) Usa 2 4 Rasa Polikeviciute (Lit) Panevezys Ebly 1 Mountain premies - 83.9 km 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 5 2 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 3 3 Sigrid Corneo (Ita) S.C. Master Automazione 2 4 Tatjana Stiaschkina (Ukr) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 1 99.1 km 1 Judith Arndt (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 5 2 Gulnara Iwanowa (Rus) Russia 3 3 Cindy Pieters (Bel) Team Vlaanderen 2002 2 4 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 1 Intermediate sprints - 28 km 1 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 5 2 Emily Robbina (Usa) Usa 3 3 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 1 Intermediate sprints - 58.4 kmkm 1 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 5 2 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 3 3 Bettina Schoke (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 1 Intermediate sprints - 88.8 km 1 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 5 2 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 3 3 Marion Brauen (Swi) Switzerland 1 Intermediate sprints - 106.4 km 1 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 5 2 Judith Arndt (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 3 3 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 1 General classification after stage 4 1 Zoulfia Zabirova (Rus) 9:43:15 2 Valentina Polkanova (Rus) 0:39 3 Tatjana Stiashkina (Ucr) 1:22 4 Barbara Heeb (Swi) 1:37 5 Rasa Polikeviciute (Lit) 1:38 6 Nicole Braendli (Swi) 1:57 (Organisers unable to provide complete GC at time of production.) Final mountains competition after stage 4 1 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 67 2 Nicole Brändli (Swi) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 51 3 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 30 4 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 16 5 Tatjana Stiaschkina (Ukr) Cicli Giha Ticino Mixte 15 6 Rasa Polikeviciute (Lit) Panevezys Ebly 15 7 Sulfia Sabirowa (Rus) Russia 12 8 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 6 9 Judith Arndt (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 5 10 Gulnara Iwanowa (Rus) Russia 4 11 Cindy Pieters (Bel) Team Vlaanderen 2002 2 12 Sigrid Corneo (Ita) S.C. Master Automazione 2 13 Emily Robbina (Usa) Usa 2 14 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 2 15 Kim Smith (Usa) Usa 1 Final Points after stage 4 1 Elena Tchalykh (Rus) Russia 46 2 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Team Teag Euregio 11 3 Rasa Polikeviciute (Lit) Panevezys Ebly 10 4 Sulfia Sabirowa (Rus) Russia 8 5 Yvonne Schnorf (Swi) Switzerland 7 6 Gulnara Iwanowa (Rus) Russia 6 7 Bogumika Matusiak (Pol) Poland 5 8 Valentina Polkhanova (Rus) Russia 4 9 Sigrid Corneo (Ita) S.C. Master Automazione 3 10 Emily Robbina (Usa) Usa 3 11 Judith Arndt (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 3 12 Lyne Bessette (Can) Canada 3 13 Marion Brauen (Swi) Switzerland 1 14 Leigh Hobson (Can) Canada 1 15 Bettina Schoke (Ger) Red Bull Frankfurt 1 16 Anne Samplonius (Can) Canada 1