Rui Costa kept on to his yellow jersey to win the Tour De Suisse this afternoon.
215.8kms of riding faced the riders on the final stage from Näfels-Lintharena to Sörenberg.
After 40kms, the first real break of the day saw Jeremy Roy (FDJ-BigMat), Brent Bookwalter (BMC), Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM), Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale) escape.
What race leader Rui Costa did not expect was for them to build up such a lead and with Kengert and Roy being 11.35 ahead as they went up the hors categorie Glaubenbielen with 70kms, they were now the leaders on the road on a day of clear blue skies.
Next was the Glaubenberg and as riders started to drift out the back of the peloton, the gap came down to 8.30.
About thirty riders were in a group containg race leader Rui Costa. The group started to fragment on the climb with Schleck going away followed by Tom Danielson. The rider from Luxembourg (pictured below) was twenty seconds ahead of Costa and now the leader on the road and closer to his second Tour De Suisse victory in three years.
Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM) were dropped, leaving three men in Roy, Kangert and Montaguti to plough on regardless at the front.
Matteo Montaguti was first over the Glaubenberg ahead of Kangert and Roy and they had a lead of 4.45 on the peloton and 3.30 on Frank Schleck.
The Costa group finally caught Schleck, allowing Chris Anker Sorensen to attack the trio of escapers.
Tanel Kangert led over the final climb and then attacked Roy for the final sprint to take the stage victory.
Further back down the road, it was the battle for the yellow jersey which was taking the attention and with the main protaganists all coming in together, it was Rui Costa who won the Tour De Suisse.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM
Tour De Suisse pictures courtesy of Burte Hoppe http://www.gallery.hoppeundglanzmann.ch/gallery/radsport/tour-de-suisse-2012/