Antón out-climbed in the Swiss mountains

Igor Antón didn't manage to stay with the very best on Friday's queen-stage in the Tour de Suisse, but still showed he's in decent shape a fortnight before the Tour kick-off.

The seventh stage, a very hilly 206km ride from Meilen to La Punt taking in the HC-ranked Albulapass, was taken out by Movistar's defending champion Rui Costa. The Portuguese out-sprinted Bauke Mollema and Tejay van Garderen from a select group that had formed over the aforementioned climb topping out ten clicks from the finish.

Euskaltel's main man, upcoming co-leader of the team at the Tour de France, Igor Antón, was never able to go with the accelerations on the final climb, but he did stay within touching distance and came across the line in 13th place, less than a minute in arrears.

While he's undoubtedly lacking another ten percent or so of his absolute peek form, the affable climber nonetheless seems to have found the basic level of form needed to be competitive in France in July.

Juan José Oroz and Ion Izagirre, both in with a shot at a Tour start berth, flattered to deceive, though, the two coming in over five and eight minutes down respectively.

Adrián Sáez, who's been aggressive all year, again put on a battling display, infiltrating the break of the day and making a daring move off the front of that group at the base of the Albulapass.

Results:

• (1, Rui Costa (Movistar), 5:11:08)
• 13, Igor Antón, 0:49
• 35, Juan José Oroz, 5:27
• 46, Ion Izagirre, 8:55
• 56, Jorge Azanza, 10:08
• 76, Gorka Verdugo, 17:15
• 77, Adrián Sáez, s.t.
• 94, Ricardo Mestre, 21:59

Photo: Orbea