Early news had American Lance Armstrong (at 25 secs in Prologue) and Denmark's Bjarne Riis (at 2 secs) starting as favourites in the 10-day Tour of Switzerland that begins here with a 5.3km time-trial on Tuesday. The last of the long tours before the Tour de France has a noticeable absence of cycling stars this year -- even former Swiss world champion Tony Rominger has pulled out.
Nevertheless, the Tour will provide vital fine-tuning for Riis, who came 6th in the time-trial of the Criterium du Dauphine that finished in Grenoble on Sunday, but who claims he is still not at his peak performance level.
Riis lost 10 minutes in the mountain stage of the Dauphine. The Dolomite mountains section in the Swiss Tour will put the Dane's endurance to the test once more.
Stage 1, June 11 Prologue Wil/SG, 5,4 km Stage 2, June 12 Wil/SG-Baden, 190.1km Stage 3, June 13 Baden-Biel/Bienne, 218.6 km Stage 4, June 14 Biel/Bienne-Bussigny, 198.4km Stage 5, June 15 Crissier-Ulrichen, 218.5km Stage 6, June 16 Oberwald-Ascona, 169.2km Stage 7, June 17 Ascona-Grindelwald, 197.7km Stage 8, June 18 Grindelwald-Frauenfeld, 231.7km Stage 9, June 19 ITT - Frauenfeld, 34.6km Stage 10, June 20 Zurich-Zurich-Oerlikon, 183.7km
CERAMICA PANARIA-VINAVIL: Zvorada AKI-GIPIEMME: Konychev, Mentheour, Rezze, Sabatier GEWISS PLAYBUS: Berzin, Colombo MG-TECHNOGYM: Bartoli, Bugno RABOBANK: Bruyneel, Breukink MOTOROLA: Armstrong TELEKOM: Riis, Zabel US POSTAL SERVICE: Hampsten CARRERA: Fidanza CERAMICHE REFIN: Abdujaparov TEAM POLTI: Gianetti SCRIGNO-BLUE STORM: Filippo Casagrande LOTTO: Tchmil MAPEI-GB: Museeuw, Bortolami SAECO: Furlan PMU ROMAND: Meier
1 Berzin Eugeni GEW 7:00.65 2 Riis Bjarne TEL 1.84 seconds 3 Meier Roland PMU 8.10 4 Faraseni Gianni PAN 9.13 5 Peron Andrea MOT 10.71 6 Serpellini Marco PAN 10.89 7 Fois Valentino PAN 11.00 8 Mentheour Herwan AKI 11.11 9 Rebellin Davide PLT 11.12 10 Camenzind Oskar PAN 11.13 11 Guidi Fabrizio SCR 11.36 12 Elli Alberto MAG 11.96 13 Checchin Stefano CAR 12.79 14 Konyshev Dimitri AKI 12.87 15 Van Bon Leon RAB 12.95 16 Meier Armin PMU 13.59 17 Luttenberger Peter CAR 14.02 18 Dekker Erik RAB 14.04 19 Holm Brian TEL 14.57 20 Nelissen Danny RAB 15.57 21 Hamilton Thyler USP 15.29 22 Baldato Fabio MAG 16.11 23 Golay Silvain MAG 16.86 24 Ulrich Jan TEL 17.29 25 Colombo Gabriele GEW 17.44 26 Della Santa Stefano MAP 17.96 27 Ekimov Vjatceslav RAB 18.06 28 Imboden Heinz REF 18.09 29 Fagnini Gianametteo SAE 18.82 30 Hampsten Andrew USP 18.96 31 Lelli Massimilliano SAE 19.36 32 Bartoli Michele MAG 20.06 33 Svrensen Rolf RAB 20.62 34 Vergnani Marco AMO 20.78 35 Meinert-Nielsen Peter TEL 21.48 36 Heppner Jens TEL 21.82 37 Titeriouk Andrei AKI 21.85 38 Verbeken Peter LOT 21.97 39 Bettino Mauro REF 22.90 40 Nardello Daniele MAP 23.11 41 Apollonio Massimo SCR 23.72 42 Pierobon Gianluca REF 23.79 43 Simeoni Filippo CAR 44 Leoni Endrio AKI 23.8 45 Gianetti Mauro PLT 24.36 46 Gallorini Sauro SCR 24.48 47 Baker Darren USP 24.54 48 Armsrong Lance MOT 25.32 49 Bourquenoud Pierre PMU 25.43 50 Bruyneel Johan RAB 25.63 51 Zabel Erik TEL 25.63 52 Montoya Alarcon MOT 26.09 53 Chiesa Mario CAR 26.14 54 Finco Carlo MAG 26.31 55 Jvrmann Rolf MAG 26.59 56 Biasci Simone SAE 26.65 57 Breukink Erik RAB 26.86 58 Tafi Andrea MAP 27.67 59 Broznya Thomas USP 27.94 60 Bugno Gianni MAG 28.69 61 Bvlts Udo TEL 28.91 62 Fornaciari Paolo SAE 28.99 63 Tronca Amilcare SCR 29.35 64 Chassot Richard PMU 29.56 65 Dojwa Jean-Philippe AKI 29.75 66 Wauters Marc LOT 29.79 67 Corvers Frank LOT 29.89 68 Kozlitine Oleg LOT 29.96 69 Randolph Greg MOT 30.20 70 Svorada Jan PAN 30.50 71 Hotz Franz PMU 31.12 72 Aldag Rolf TEL 31.17 73 Piziks Arvis RAB 31.39 74 Baranowski Dariusz USP 31.43 75 Siboni Marcello CAR 31.44 76 Fleischer Thomas LOT 32.00 77 Casarotto Davide SCR 32.52 78 Steinhauser tobias REF 33.06 79 Mazzoleni Eddy SAE 33.20 80 Vanzella Flavio MOT 33.61 81 Tchmil Andrej LOT 33.98 82 De Pasquale Maurizio AMO 34.14 83 Engleman Mike USP 34.25 84 Gasperoni Cristian SCR 34.25 85 Frattini Francesco GEW 34.81 86 Ludwig Olaf TEL 34.95 87 Colage Stefano REF 35.16 88 Molinari Maurizio MAG 35.49 89 Barbagli Alessio SCR 35.77 90 Bomans Carlo MAP 35.89 91 Ferdeghini Lorenzo MAG 35.92 92 Mondini Gianpaolo AMO 36.22 93 Forconi Riccardo AMO 36.28 94 Patuelli Andrea AMO 36.35 95 Fina Rosario GEW 37.18 96 Wirz Guido PMU 38.03 97 Nicoletti Dario MAP 38.94 98 Buschor Philipp SAE 39.89 99 Moos Alexandre SAE 40.15 100 Schnider Daniel PMU 40.24
1. Michele Bartoli (Ita) 4.45.11 2. Armin Meier (Swi) s.t. 3. Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) +0.48 4. Stefano Checcin (Ita) 5. Rolf Jaermann (Swi) 6. Richard Chassot (Swi) 7. Brian Holm (Den) 8. Gianni Faresin (Ita) all s.t. 9. Erik Zabel (Ger) +1.15 10. David Rebellin (Ita) s.t.
1. Armin Meier (Swi) 4.52.19 2. Michele Bartoli (Ita) +0.02 3. Fabrizio Guidi (Ita) +0.48 4. Gianni Faresin (Ita) +0.49 5. Stefano Checchin (Ita) +0.53 6. Brian Holm (Den) +0.55 7. Rolf Jaermann (Swi) +1.07 8. Evgeni Berzin (Rus) s.t. 9. Bjarne Riis (Den) +1.09 10. Richard Chassot (Swi) +1.10