The Tour de Suisse is one of the most prestigious stage races in the 2008 UCI ProTour, and the breathtaking roads in the Swiss mountains and along the lake shores offers a spectacular backdrop for the aggressive racing.
The nine days of racing are held across the whole of Switzerland, from Geneva to Zurich and from Bern to Lugano, with stages often visiting the UCI headquarters in Aigle. The Tour de Suisse always draws huge crowds along the roads each day as Swiss cycling fans remember the great riders of the 72-year race history, such as Hugo Koblet, Beat Breu, Pascal Richard and Alex Zülle.
In 2007, Vladimir Karpets of the Caisse d’Epargne team dominated in the time trials and rode impressively in the mountains, beating Luxembourg’s Kim Kirchen of the T-Mobile team by a minute. Swiss Cycling’s current biggest star Fabian Cancellara, of the CSC team, won both the time trial stages in 2007. The second was around his hometown of Bern and his dominant performance proved he deserves his double world time trial title.
Cancellara will again be the man to beat in the time trial stages in 2008. He would love to challenge for overall victory or at least hold the leader’s jersey, but the power that helps him win against the clock becomes a handicap in the often decisive mountain stages.
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