Rui Costa (Movistar) used a dominant performance in the final time trial to the top of the Flumserberg to prove that he is by far the strongest rider in the Tour de Suisse. The Portuguese took a convincing win ahead of Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Bauke Mollema (Blanco) and took over the overall lead from Mathias Frank (BMC) who moved down into 5th on the final day of racing.

Rui Costa has a certain love for Switzerland. Last year he finished 3rd in the Tour de Romandie and won the Tour de Suisse and earlier this year he repeated his performance in the former event. Today he underlined his ability to perform well in the small Alpine country by taking a repeat win in the national tour.

The Portuguese was by far the strongest in the unusual final time trial which consisted of 16 completely flat kilometres and the 10km, 9% climb to the top of the Flumserberg. He beat Tanel Kangert into 2nd by 21 seconds while Bauke Mollema finished 3rd, 8 seconds further behind.

Already on the flat part, Costa had indicated that he was on fire by posting the 6th best time, only 11 seconds behind time trial specialist Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) but while the American was unable to keep up the pace on the climb, Costa just rode faster and faster.

At the second time check halfway up the climb, he was 2nd 4 seconds behind Kangert who had been tremendously strong on the first part of the climb. However, the Estonian faded somewhat in the final part, thus allowing Costa to move ahead with a clear margin.

Already at the first time check, Costa had reduced his 13-second deficit to Mathias Frank by 12 seconds and so it was clear that the Portuguese would run away with the win. However, the battle for the remaining podium positions was intense.

At the first time check, Van Garderen edged closer to a podium position by setting the best time while his teammate Frank beat Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff), Thbaout Pinot (FDJ) and Mollema who were the other podium candidates. Hence, the BMC team was in with a chance of making it two riders on the podium behind the invincible Costa.

As soon as they hit the climb, the BMC hopes came to nothing. Both riders faded extremely on the steep slopes and halfway up the climb, Van Garderen had moved down into 3rd while Frank was only a modest 17th. Frank was still 2nd on GC at that point but was only 6 seconds ahead of Kreuziger and 19 ahead of Mollema who had been tremendously fast on the first part of the climb.

The time check was a solid indication of things to come and none of the BMC riders were able to improve in the final part. Van Garderen who had been the big favourite prior to the stage, only finished 10th while Frank could only manage 19th.

At the same time, Mollema kept up the pace and at the finish, he had even reduced his deficit to Kangert from 28 seconds to just 8 seconds. The performance was enough to move the Dutchman into 2nd while Kreuziger finished a solid 7th to defend his 3rd place.

Frank and Van Garderen fell back into 5th and 7th respectively, thus making it a hugely disappointing day for BMC. Pinot finished 6th on the day and defended his 4th place on GC while Kangert's strong ride earned him an overall 6th place.

Early on it was clear that the time trial specialists would have no chance on this tough course. While David Millar (Garmin-Sharp), Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano) and Kristof Vandewalle (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) all set early good times on the flat stretch, they were nowhere to be seen at the top end of the final stage result. Quadruple world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara (Radioschack) was far off the pace, only setting 49th best time on the flat stretch and finishing a modest 65th.

The first rider to stay in the hot seat for some time was Norwegian sprinter Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) who beat Cyril Lemoine (Sojasun), the early leader of the time trial. His teammate Gatis Smukulis did, however, lower the mark by 23 seconds but just before a short break that should allow team cars to get down from the mountain, Daryil Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) moved into the hot seat.

When the competition was resumed, the good times came much more often than they had done in the early part. Andreas Klöden (Radioshack) beat Impey by 49 seconds while Jesus Herrada (Movistar) finished in exactly the same time a little later.

Those two were removed from the hot seat by Jeremy Roy (FDJ) but the Frenchman was only leader for less than 2 minutes as an impressive Peter Sagan (Cannondale) quickly beat his time. 9 minutes later, French champion Arnold Jeannesson relegated the points jersey wearer into 2nd before being eclipsed by Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel).

The Basque rider held the lead for some time but Andre Amador (Movistar) finally lowered the mark a little bit further. French veteran Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) was, however, on a roll and he beat the Costa Rican by less than 1 second.

Peraud led the race until Kangert powered across the line, the Estonian putting 21 seconds into the Frenchman. Kangert had time to hope for another stage win in the Suisse race after yesterday's splendid performance into Sörenberg but as the penultimate rider on the course Costa made it clear that he was the strongest rider in the race.

With his overall win, Costa moves into 10th on the WorldTour rankings which are still led by Cancellara ahead of Sagan who moves Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) into 3rd by virtue of his two stage wins in Switzerland.

Result:

1. Rui Costa 51.56

2. Tanel Kangert+0.21

3. Bauke Mollema +0.29

4. Jean-Christophe Peraud +0.42

5. Andrey Amador +0.43

6. Thibaut Pinot +0.55

7. Roman Kreuziger +1.00

8. Simon Spilak +1.05

9. Janez Brajkovic +1.06

10. Tejay Van Garderen +1.19

General classification:

1. Rui Costa 31.08.11

2. Bauke Mollema +1.02

3. Roman Kreuziger +1.10

4. Thibaut Pinot +1.26

5. Mathias Frank +1.43

6. Tanel Kangert +1.51

7. Tejay Van Garderen +2.23

8. Daniel Martin +2.42

9. Simon Spilak +2.42

10. Cameron Meyer +3.44

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 80

2. Arnaud Demare 50

3. Bauke Mollema 47

4. Rui Costa 42

5. Alexander Kristoff 41

Mountains classification:

1. Robert Vrecer 31

2. Thibaut Pinot 28

3. Manuele Mori 23

4. Rui Costa 17

5. Alexandr Kolobnev 15

Sprint classification:

1. Robert Vrecer 15

2. Adrian Saez 13

3. Maxime Bouet 9

4. Luis-Leon Sanchez 7

5. Alexandr Kolobnev 7

Teams classification:

1. Astana 93.35.59

2. BMC +4.06

3. Movistar +4.20

4. Ag2r +7.48

5. Katusha +14.10