Andy Schleck is still desperately trying to build form for the Tour de France and convince his Trek management to select him for the world's biggest race. Today he went on the attack in the queen stage of the Tour de Suisse but again he was unable to follow the best.

Trek Factory Racing began the final day of the Tour de Suisse without the service of Fabian Cancellara who was still suffering the allergic after-effects of a bee sting he sustained in the stage seven time trial. The team was down to four, and with nothing to lose on the final day in Switzerland, Andy Schleck stanchly jumped into the day’s breakaway.

The 156.7-kilometer stage nine was the final chance to knock Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) from the overall lead - a lead he held since winning the first day’s time trial – and the fireworks began on the penultimate climb with 45 kilometers still to race.

It was on this second-to-last climb where Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), and Bauke Mollema (Belkin) – sitting third, fourth and fifth overall respectively – bridged to the large breakaway group of Andy Schelck. The race was on!

Schleck eventually lost contact to the leading group with the surge in pace from the three fresh, and highly motivated pairs of legs; by the final climb – the hors catégorie summit finish to end it all – the group was whittled to eight.  Andy was swept up by the chasing peloton and ultimately found his own tempo to finish the day.

“It was a really hard day; from the start it was going super fast," Schleck said. "A group went, maybe 12 guys, on the first category climb and me and [Steve] Morabito jumped to this group and closed the gap. This was a very hard effort and after this I was not feeling so well anymore.

“Then the next climb when the three guys came from behind I had nothing left. I had ridden 120 kilometers at 180% and that was too much. I paid for it in the end. The last 15 kilometers I was done and I found my own rhythm just to get to the finish.”

At the finish Rui Costa sealed the stage win and with it the overall Tour de Suisse victory. Frank and Mollema also placed top three for the stage and congealed the final podium spots behind Costa. Both Tony Martin and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), starting the day in positions one - two, would drop to fourth and fifth GC after a persistent, but ultimately, unsuccessful chase. Andy Schleck finished in 29th place.

“It was a good week for me to find some shape; a good week of training," Schleck said. "I was not super good yesterday in the final climb, but not so bad either, and today I was active in the race. For me it is more important to ride in front and try something then to conserve, hang on, and maybe finish only one minute behind. The level is quite high here and today I went really deep.”

The Tour de Suisse was the final Tour de France preparation for Trek Factory Racing. General Manager Luca Guercilena, who flew in for the final weekend of racing, summed up the week, which he explained, finished below the team’s expectations.

“We wanted to get more out of the Tour de Suisse, but from the beginning we lost riders with crashes and health reasons," he said. " At least we were present in some attacks but it’s evident we don’t have the condition to follow the best riders right now. We are heading into a tough July but as usual we will try to be well motivated and ready to do what is in our possibilities.”

Trek Factory Racing heads into 12 different National Championships this coming week as the multi-national team attempts to win as many of the prestigious Championship jerseys as possible. This week also serves up the final Tour de France selection, where the 13 rider long list will be pared to the starting nine and four reserves.

“We will have a conference call Tuesday morning with all the directors and there we will try and determine the nine riders for the Tour, and the official four for reserve," Guercilena said. " Each director has followed five or six riders all year, so they will be able to give specific input. We will also discuss our goals for the Tour and then determine which riders best fit this.

“But the riders need to train to the last day because anything can happen. The 10th and 11th reserves need to be ready like they were also taking the start, and obviously the 12th and 13th will go on to another program.

“And in between now and the Tour we have the National Championships and that is really, really important for us. We want to be ready to win some Championships’ jerseys.”