Bauke Mollema (Blanco) brought a three-year victory drought to an end with a win in today's prestigious Tour de Suisse mountain stage to Crans-Montana. Attacking with around 1km to go, he passed Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) who had been in the lead for most of the climb and soloed across the line 11 seconds ahead of a small chase group. Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) finished a little further behind to narrowly defend his overall lead.

When Bauke Mollema won a hilly stage in the Tour of Poland back in August 2010, most thought that it would just be the first of many more to come for the huge talent. However, his progress stalled somewhat and for almost three years he was unable to add to his victory tally.

He brought that drought to an end in impressive fashion in one of the most prestigious stages of this year's Tour de Suisse when he soloed across the line atop the final climb to Crans-Montana. Having used his strong Blanco team to set a strong pace throughout most of the ascent, he finally showed his cards with 1km to go.

The main animator of the stage was, however, last year's Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal. The Canadian had showed his intentions early on when his teammate Daniel Martin attacked with 12km to go.

The Irishman managed to build up a solid gap over the peloton which was being led by Daryl Impey from the Orica-GreenEdge team of race leader Cameron Meyer. The pace was, however, still modest and the main group was still rather sizeable.

Moments later Hesjedal played his cards. When Jesus Herrada (Movistar) attacked, the Canadian joined the move and a little later Brice Feillu (Sojasun) and Tanel Kangert (Astana) also caught up with the Spaniard. The quartet soldiered on to very quickly catch Martin, thus making it 2 Garmin riders in a 5-man move.

Behind, Impey had mow been replaced by his teammate Albasini who set a hard tempo while riders continued to drop off. With 10km to go, it was over for Andy Schleck (Radioshack) who still appears to have some work to do before the start of the Tour de France.

Herrada quickly dropped off from the front group and a little later Feillu was also unable to keep up the pace. With 9km to go Hesjedal decided to attack but only saw teammate Martin drop off while Kangert clawed his way back into the Candian's wheel.

The three dropped riders were brought back into the fold by Albasini but Hesjedal and Kangert da now built up a gap of more than 20 seconds. This forced more teams to react and the first of those were Blanco who put two men on the front.

Ag2r had Domenico Pozzovivo and Jean-Christophe Peraud in their ranks and were also eager to join the work. For many kilometres, Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r) and Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Blanco) were setting the pace while the peloton gradually lost riders out the back door. Oliver Zaugg (Saxo-Tinkoff) also helped at some point, showing that Roman Kreuziger was feeling good.

With 6km to go, Steven Kruijswijk took a huge turn on the front and even momentarily gapped the peloton. That was, however, never his intention and he dropped back to instead continue the pace-setting.

The gap had now started to come down and so Hesjedal knew that he had to up the pace. With 5km to go, he attacked and this time Kangert was unable to respond. Hesjedal continued on his own and quickly increased his gap back up to a little more than 30 seconds.

Maxime Bouet (Ag2r) and Nordhaug were now doing the work in the peloton but the BMC team of Tejay Van Garderen realized that the pace had to be upped. He asked teammate Amael Moinard to increase the speed while Van Garderen stayed in third position behind Moinard and his other teammate Mathias Frank.

With 3km to go, the first attack from one of the favourites was launched when Simon Spilak accelerated. Pozzovivo and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) did, however, respond very quickly and soon after most of the peloton was back together.

That was the signal for Pozzovivo to try his hand and this time only Pinot and Martin were able to follow the tiny Italian. They passed Kangert but when the climb leveled out they were brought back into the fold.

Van Garderen now launched an attack but once again it came to nothing and instead the favourites started to look at each other. Hence, Hesjedal's gap once again started to grow and so Van Garderen had to ask Frank to mount a serious chase.

With around 1km to go, Johann Tschopp (IAM) accelerated and this time the attacker gained some ground. The Swiss approached Hesjedal rapidly and for a moment he appeared to be a surprise stage winner.

That all changed a few moments later when Mollema showed his cards. Accelerating hard, he rocketed by Tschopp and in a matter of seconds he had also caught Hesjedal.

The Canadian was unable to keep up with the Dutchman while ehind, Kreuziger chased hard in a small group. They caught Hesjedal but Mollema was just too strong for them to catch. The Blanco rider crossed the line in solo fashion, finishing 11 seconds ahead of the chase group which was led home by Frank and Pinot.

Hesjedal who had started the day 9th overall also finished in that group but Meyer managed to limit his losses to the Canadian to only 16 seconds. Hence, he kept his yellow jersey but now only has a 3-second advantage on last year's Giro champion.

The big losers were Van Garderen and defending champion Rui Costa (Movistar) who both struggled in the final part of the climb and both lost some time to their main rivals.

The race is, however, not over at all and the riders face another difficult stage tomorrow. The top of the category 1 climb Hasliberg is located only 19,4km from the finish, thus making the stage another opportunity for the GC riders to make a difference. Starting at 16.55 you can follow the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

An altered course

Once again weather forced organizers of a bike race to alter the course as the Nufenenpass had to be skipped due to snow. Instead, the first mountain stage of this year's Tour de Suisse was shortened to just 119km as the riders would travel along valley roads to the bottom of the final climb up to Crans-Montana.

Inside the first 5km, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Arman Kamyshev (Astana), Fabian Wegmann (Garmin) and Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r) attacked and they were joined by Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Lloyd Mondory (Ag2r), Paolo Longo Borghini (Cannondale), Kenny Dehaes (Lotto) and Reto Hollenstein (IAM). The group was, however, too big for the peloton and they closed it down immediately.

4 riders get clear

Instead, Adrian Saez (Euskaltel), Enrique Sanz (Movistar), Christophe Riblon (Ag2r) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Argos-Shimano) got clear and during the first hour they covered more than 50km in the extremely fast stage. They built up a gap of 2.50 before Orica-GreenEdge started to chase.

They were later joined by FDJ and for a long time Cedric Pineau was doing all the work in the peloton, gradually reducing the gap to less than a minute with around 25km to go. The peloton did, however, not want to catch the break too early and so the peloton slowed down considerably.

Riblon in a solo move

Riblon decided to try his hand on his own but after a long chase, the 4 escapees were back together with 18km to go. At this point, the peloton had once again upped the pace as the battle for position for the final 16km climb was now intense.

The pace was so fast that the escapees were swallowed before they hit the bottom of the climb as Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) now made a sprint to position Van Garderen well for the climb. As soon as they hit the lower slopes, his teammate Marcus Burghardt hit the front and the next in the BMC line was Michael Schär.

Millar on the front

Hesjedal showed his intentions by asking David Millar to up the pace but when he dropped off, Impey hit the front where he stayed for a long time. The first short-lived attack came from Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Movistar) who was quickly brought back and the fate was the same for a move by Jorge Azanza (Euskaltel) and Martin.

With 12km to go, Martin tried again, thus signaling the start of Hesjedal's big offensive that was ultimately unsuccessful while Mollema soloed to his first win in almost 3 years.

Result:

1. Bauke Mollema 2.43.00

2. Matthias Frank +0.11

3. Thibaou Pinot

4. Ryder Hesjedal

5. Johann Tschopp

6. Daniel Martin

7. Roman Kreuziger

8. Michele Scarponi

9. Giovanni Visconti +0.19

10. Domenico Pozzovivo

General classification:

1. Cameron Meyer 2.53.06

2. Ryder Hesjedal +0.03

3. Matthias Frank +0.05

4. Giovanii Visconti +0.12

5. Bauke Mollema +0.16

6. Thibaut Pinot +0.28

7. Roman Kreuziger +0.34

8. Moreno Moser +0.34

9. Alexandr Dyachenko +0.35

10. Domenico Pozzovivo +0.36

Points classification:

1. Cameron Meyer 15

2. Bauke Mollema 15

3. Ryder Hesjedal 13

4. Mathias Frank 13

5. Niki Terpstra 12

Mountains classification:

1. Ryder Hesjedal 12

2. Domenico Pozzovivo 8

3. Thibaut Pinot 6

4. Tanel Kangert 4

5. Daniel Martin 2

Sprint classification:

1. Enrique Sanz 12

2. Adrian Saez 6

3. Johannes Fröhlinger 1

4. Christophe Riblon 1

Teams classification:

1. IAM 8.40.31

2. Movistar +0.29

3. Astana +0.40

4. Ag2r +0.43

5. Blanco +1.18