Written by Kyle Moore

Tour de Suisse

It was Kim Kirchen’s turn to earn the glory for Columbia-High Road today, taking the uphill sprint ahead of Roman Kreuzinger in stage 7.  As the lead group approached the finish, Columbia remained aggressive, and attacks by Michael Albasini and Maxime Monfort were unsuccessful before Kirchen’s perfectly timed acceleration.  A dangerous breakaway group of Rojas (Caisse d-Epargne), Ciolek (Milram), Burghardt (Columbia), and Gaudin (Bbox Bouygues) wasn’t allowed much time before being reeled in.  Kirchen’s win makes it 5 wins in 7 stages for Columbia.  Not too shabby.

Stage 7
1 Kim Kirchen (LUX), Columbia, 204 K in 4:56:41
2 Roman Kreuzinger (CZE), Liquigas, at 0:02
3 Peter Velits, (SVK), Milram, at 0:07

Overall
1  Tadej Valjavec (SLO), AG2R, 28:07:00
2  Fabian Cancellara (SUI), Saxo Bank, at 0:09
3  Oliver Zaugg (SWI), Liquigas, 0:14
4  Roman Kreuziger (CZE), Liquigas, 0:31
5  Andreas Kloden (GER), Astana, 0:45

Tour de Nez

Chad Gerlach (Amore & Vita Pro Racing) made an impressive step in his comeback to cycling with an easy win in the Truckee criterium on Thursday.  Amber Rais of Team Tibco took the elite women’s title.  Racing continues today with the Red River Criterium and concludes tomorrow with a circuit race around the Northstar-at-Tahoe resort.

Racing Roundup

German Roger Kluge (LKT Team Brandenburg) took stage 4 of the Tour of Serbia out of a nine-man breakaway.  Przemyslaw Niemiec (Miche-Silver Cross) took stage 2 of Route du Sud.