After spending nearly the entirety of the Tour de Suisse in the overall lead, BMC Racing Team's Mathias Frank finished the nine-day race in fifth place, while teammate Tejay van Garderen was seventh.
Rui Costa (Movistar Team) won Sunday's final 26.8-kilometer individual time trial in 51:56 to take the overall victory. Frank finished 19th, 1’56” behind, while his teammate Tejay van Garderen – who had the best time at the first intermediate time check – placed 10th, 1’19” back. Frank said after starting fast, he struggled in the final kilometres of the uphill finish.
"I felt myself getting slower and slower the farther I came up," he said. "These are the hardest moments – when you realize you can't quite hold it where you want to be. Maybe I mentally cracked at this moment for a bit. Still, I gave it everything. I fought to the end." Frank took the lead on Monday's third stage and the BMC Racing Team helped him hold it the next five days. "The guys on the team were great this week," Frank said. "I have to see it in the whole picture. I think I had a great Tour de Suisse. It gave me a lot. I started to believe in myself. I haven't been many times in this situation. It's still a learning process."
Costa, who also won the race last year, finished ahead of Bauke Mollema (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) and Roman Kreuziger (Team Saxo-Tinkoff). The BMC Racing Team finished second – by seven seconds – in the team classification.
Daan OLIVIER 32 years | today |
Alfredo GABINO 41 years | today |
Gonzalo ARIÑO 25 years | today |
Nicolas EDMUNDO 34 years | today |
Pau MARTI 20 years | today |
© CyclingQuotes.com