The 2013 Tour de Suisse was the 77th running of the Tour de Suisse cycling stage race. It started on 8 June with an individual time trial in Quinto and ended on 16 June after another individual time trial in Flumserberg; in total, the race consisted of nine stages. It was the seventeenth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won for the second successive year by rider Rui Costa, who claimed the leader's yellow jersey after winning the final stage – a time trial, with a climb to a summit finish – overturning a 13-second deficit to previous race leader Mathias Frank of the . Costa was also the winner of the race's queen stage two days prior, winning into La Punt. Costa's winning margin over runner-up Bauke Mollema of – a stage winner during the race, winning the second stage – was sixty-two seconds, while the podium was completed by 's Roman Kreuziger, eight seconds down on Mollema and seventy behind Costa.
In the race's other classifications, rider Robert Vrečer was the winner of both the mountains and the sprints classifications, having featured in several breakaways during the nine-day race. Peter Sagan () again won the points classification, and was the only other rider to win multiple stages during the event. finished at the head of the teams classification, for the second successive year.
Teams As the Tour de Suisse was a UCI World Tour event, all UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Originally, eighteen ProTeams were scheduled to be invited to the race, with two other squads – , and – given wildcard places, and as such, would have formed the event's 20-team peloton. subsequently regained their ProTour status after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. With not originally invited to the race, race organisers announced their inclusion to the race, bringing the total number of teams competing to twenty-one.
The 21 teams that competed in the race were:
Among the 167-rider starting peloton – each team entered eight riders with the exception of , who entered seven – were four previous winners of the race. 2008 winner Roman Kreuziger was the designated team leader for , while 2009 winner Fabian Cancellara occupied a similar role for . The had two previous riders among their octet; Vladimir Karpets, who won the race in 2007, served as one of the domestiques for the defending race-winner Rui Costa.
Race overview + Stage characteristics and winnersStageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinner 1 8 June Quinto to Quinto Individual time trial 2 9 June Ulrichen to Crans-Montana Mountain stage 3 10 June Montreux to Meiringen Intermediate stage 4 11 June Innertkirchen to Buochs Flat stage 5 12 June Buochs to Leuggern Hilly stage 6 13 June Leuggern to Meilen Hilly stage 7 14 June Meilen to La Punt Mountain stage 8 15 June Zernez to Bad Ragaz Hilly stage 9 16 June Bad Ragaz to Flumserberg Individual time trial
Stages
Stage 1 8 June 2013 — Quinto, , individual time trial (ITT)
After three years of opening with an individual time trial stage around the city of Lugano, the municipality of Quinto played host to the opening salvo of the 2013 edition of the Tour de Suisse. Starting and finishing at Ambri Airport, the parcours was set to favour the time trial specialists more so than the 2012 race-opening stage, with slightly less undulation on the route; the only major spike of note on the route – the route was compact, with no more than of undulating parcours – was a climb of 7% with around remaining of the stage. From the climb, the route descended back down towards the airport, with a run-in including a finishing straight of . Race organisers expected the best time for the stage to be beneath the ten-minute barrier, with a time of 9' 55".
rider Yannick Talabardon was the first rider into the stage, and he recorded a time of 10' 32", which was instantaneously beaten by the next rider on the road, Reto Hollenstein of the team; Hollenstein recorded a time exactly equal to the organisers' predicted winning time of 9' 55". However, Hollenstein was not to win with such a time, as after half an hour with the best time, Alex Rasmussen () knocked a second off the best time. Rasmussen held the fastest time for around fifteen minutes until Cameron Meyer comfortably beat that time for . Although not the fastest through the intermediate time-check, Meyer crossed the line in a time of 9' 39", beating Rasmussen's time by fifteen seconds over the course. A shift in wind direction aided Meyer's bid to win the stage, and after two hours passed, Meyer was able to take the stage victory, and the first yellow jersey. Several of the main contenders for the stage were caught out by the wind; Fabian Cancellara () lost 22 seconds to Meyer, while 's Peter Sagan just broke the top 40 in the stage results, as he lost 35 seconds over the course.
Stage 1 Result and General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 10" 3 + 14" 4 + 15" 5 + 16" 6 + 16" 7 + 18" 8 + 19" 9 + 19" 10 + 19"
Stage 2 9 June 2013 — Ulrichen to Crans-Montana,
After originally being scheduled to be held over a distance of , race organisers announced prior to the race that the stage would be shortened to . A further amendment was made the night before the stage was due to be run, reducing the stage yet further, to . The amendment was due to heavy snow on what was due to be the first categorised climb of the race, the Nufenen Pass, which had made the roads impassable. The stage start was moved to Ulrichen, which had been due to be the first town in which the peloton would have passed on the descent from the climb. The new parcours was largely downhill to start, before flattening out; it passed through two intermediate sprint points at Sierre and Sion before reaching the first-category climb to Crans-Montana. A long climb, the ascent averaged over 6%, and was featuring in the race after a year's absence in 2012; the previous stage finish was won by Mauricio Soler in 2011, before he crashed heavily later in that race, which ultimately ended his cycling career.
After a quick opening to the stage, the breakaway was formed inside the opening of racing. rider Enrique Sanz was joined by 's Christophe Riblon, Adrián Sáez () and Johannes Fröhlinger of made up the group, and managed to accrue a maximum advantage of approaching three minutes around halfway through the stage. Sanz led the group through each of the intermediate sprint points, as the peloton started to close on the lead quartet. Riblon attacked his companions with around remaining, but he was caught several kilometres later, and the group as a whole were caught just as the final climb commenced. led onto the climb, with Thibaut Pinot expected to challenge for the stage. Dan Martin () launched the first major attack on the ascent, with his team-mate Ryder Hesjedal eventually bridging up to him with three other riders.
A high pace that was being set by the duo reduced the group of five to just three, with only rider Tanel Kangert being able to stick within the small group, which was around fifteen seconds ahead of the main field. Hesjedal then took the front, and Martin dropped back, which allowed the gap to further extend up to half a minute with around remaining. Hesjedal kicked on from Kangert a couple of kilometres later, and led across the line in which mountains classification points were being offered. Several other riders launched punchy moves as they approached the final kilometre, with the strongest coming from 's Johann Tschopp and Bauke Mollema of . Mollema closed in on Hesjedal inside the final kilometre, and accelerated away to claim his first stage victory since the 2010 Tour de Pologne, despite receiving a 20-second penalty post-stage for receiving a bidon in an area too close to the finish. Overnight leader Cameron Meyer () was able to maintain the yellow jersey by three seconds from Hesjedal.
Stage 2 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 11" 3 + 11" 4 + 11" 5 + 11" 6 + 11" 7 + 11" 8 + 11" 9 + 19" 10 + 19"General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 3" 3 + 5" 4 + 12" 5 + 16" 6 + 28" 7 + 34" 8 + 34" 9 + 35" 10 + 36"
Stage 3 10 June 2013 — Montreux to Meiringen,
The third stage of the race was a transitional stage, starting from Montreux alongside the banks of Lake Geneva and heading north towards Bern on an undulating route. This route included a third-category climb at the Chemin de Lorette in Fribourg, as it meandered its way towards the stage finish at Meiringen. Prior to reaching Meiringen for the first time, an intermediate sprint point was passed in the village of Brienz, on the northern shore of Lake Brienz. At Meiringen, there was a short, punchy fourth-category climb at the Grimselstrasse, a climb of 5.6% in gradient, and after another intermediate sprint at Innertkirchen, set the riders up for the day's major ascent. That ascent was the first-category climb of the Hasliberg, measuring 6.3% over , with portions approaching 10%; the gradient was stunted somewhat by a short false-flat halfway up the climb. A fast, technical descent – with speeds reaching a maximum of around – followed the summit, and brought the riders back to Meiringen, where the final of racing were flat, with straight roads.
With heavy rain on the route, the peloton went through a testing portion of the course in the opening kilometres and enabled the group to split apart for a period before reforming several kilometres later. On the climb at the Chemin de Lorette, the breakaway formed with eighteen riders heading up the road ahead of the peloton. Despite such a large group going ahead, the peloton – being led by the team – kept the lead gap in check at between three and three-and-a-half minutes. The group started to splinter as it headed towards Meiringen for the first time, while in the peloton, Ryder Hesjedal (), who had been lying second place overall, crashed out of the race. He was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with "multiple contusions and abrasions", but no fractured bones. The nine leaders crossed the finish line in Meiringen ahead of the closing loop, and held a lead of around two minutes over the peloton.
After 's Tom Boonen led over the fourth-category precursor to the Hasliberg, the lead group thinned yet further, ultimately leaving four riders at the head of proceedings – rider Wilco Kelderman, Matti Breschel (), Martin Elmiger of , and 's Michael Albasini – but the remnants of the peloton were inside a minute of the group. 's pace on the front with Tejay van Garderen and Mathias Frank had reduced the group to around fifteen riders, with yellow jersey wearer Cameron Meyer () among those dropped. The groups merged towards the top, where Breschel's team-mate Roman Kreuziger attacked clear, with 's Peter Sagan, Frank and Rui Costa of the bridged across. The four riders remained off the front until the finish, where Sagan out-sprinted the rest for his seventh career victory at the Tour de Suisse. Fourth place for Frank was good enough for him to claim the race leader's yellow jersey; his first race lead at his home Tour.
Stage 3 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 + 39" 6 + 46" 7 + 46" 8 + 46" 9 + 46" 10 + 46"General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 23" 3 + 35" 4 + 53" 5 + 57" 6 + 1' 08" 7 + 1' 23" 8 + 1' 26" 9 + 1' 28" 10 + 1' 39"
Stage 4 11 June 2013 — Innertkirchen to Buochs,