The 2012 Tour de Suisse was the 76th running of the Tour de Suisse cycling stage race. It started on 9 June with an individual time trial in Lugano and ended on 17 June, in Sörenberg after nine stages. It was the 17th race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by rider Rui Costa, who claimed the leader's yellow jersey after winning the second stage, and maintained the lead of the race until its conclusion holding off attacks from his rivals during the final two stages. Costa's winning margin over runner-up Fränk Schleck of – the 2010 winner – was fourteen seconds, and 's Levi Leipheimer, the defending champion, completed the podium, seven seconds down on Schleck and twenty-one behind Costa.
In the race's other classifications, rider Matteo Montaguti won the mountains classification, 's Peter Sagan comfortably won the white jersey for the points classification, having won four stages during the race including the race-opening time trial stage. finished at the head of the teams classification, winning two of the last three stages through Fredrik Kessiakoff's seventh stage time trial victory and Tanel Kangert winning the final stage.
Participating teams As the Tour de Suisse was a UCI World Tour event, all eighteen UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Two other squads – and – were given wildcard places into the race, and as such, formed the event's 20-team peloton.
The twenty teams that competed in the race were:
Stages
Stage 1 9 June 2012 — Lugano, , individual time trial (ITT)
For the third successive year, the race began with a short individual time trial in around the city of Lugano. Although starting and finishing at relatively the same height above sea level, the stage had a small hill – the western flank of Monte Brè – around midway through the parcours, being used in the race for the second year in succession, after then-world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara won the stage in a time of 9' 41" in 2011. Race organisers expected the best time for the stage to be four seconds slower than Cancellara's time from 2011, predicting a winning time of 9' 45" for the stage. After returning from injury in May's Bayern-Rundfahrt, Cancellara of was the undoubted favourite for the stage, having won the opening stage of the race on five occasions.
The first rider to depart the start in Lugano was rider Will Routley, who recorded a time of 11' 33" for the course. His stay at the top of the timesheets was short, as the next two riders – 's Daniele Colli and Chris Anker Sørensen for – went substantially quicker than his time. Julien Bérard lowered the benchmark to 10' 29" for , before former Lithuanian national champion Ignatas Konovalovas () reduced the leading time further to 10' 24" before rider Thomas Löfkvist pushed the leading time into the low 10-minute times, setting a time of 10' 05" for the course; his time was the best of the first wave of riders to start. Berard's team-mate Martin Elmiger was the first rider to record a time below ten minutes, beating Löfkvist's time by eleven seconds to set a time of 9' 54".
Elmiger held the top spot for all of fifteen minutes as neo-pro Moreno Moser recorded the quickest time at the intermediate point into the stage, and maintained that form to the finish line, setting a time of 9' 50" to surpass the time of Elmiger by four seconds. The times of Moser and Elmiger remained untroubled for the majority of the following riders, and it was not until Cancellara took to the course, around two hours after they had completed their efforts, that their times came under significant pressure. Cancellara was nine seconds slower than Moser at the intermediate time-point, but paced the second half of the course more efficiently and was three seconds quicker at the end of the stage. As Cancellara was finishing, Sagan was starting the course and was six seconds quicker to the same time-point; Cancellara closed out the course quicker, but Sagan held on by four seconds to take the stage victory. Moser and Elmiger maintained third and fourth to the end, with the top five being rounded out by rider Fredrik Kessiakoff.
Stage 1 Result and General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 4" 3 + 7" 4 + 11" 5 + 15" 6 + 17" 7 + 18" 8 + 19" 9 + 20" 10 + 22"
Stage 2 10 June 2012 — Verbania (Italy) to Verbier,
The race's second stage started across the Swiss border, in the Italian city of Verbania on the shores of Lake Maggiore. The parcours featured two categorised climbs during its itinerary; of which both were rated as hors catégorie and both came as the race returned to Swiss soil. The Simplonpass, reaching an altitude of , was the first of the two on the route after , with the other coming on the run-in to Verbier; that particular climb to Verbier had an average gradient of 7.5% for its duration. Although the points were on offer with under to go, the route climbed slightly further to the finish line. The breakaway of the day was formed by one member of each of the two wildcard teams in the race, and .
The former team's Alessandro Bazzana was the instigator as soon as the race left Verbania, and was later joined by Ryan Anderson as the two riders quickly set up an advantage over the main field. As such, after only of racing, the pairing held an advantage of around ten minutes over the peloton, but this was cut by half as the race entered Switzerland. Anderson took the maximum haul of points at the top of the Simplonpass ahead of Bazzana, while the peloton had closed to four minutes behind at that point, but soon slowed down and the advantage was back out towards eight minutes at the foot of the descent. The peloton then started to close the advantage back down, mainly led by and , and the leaders were caught prior to the intermediate sprint point in Martigny, where race leader Peter Sagan () was first across the line to extend his points classification lead. Sagan also took maximum points at the following intermediate sprint several kilometres later in Sembrancher, which also gave him six bonus seconds towards the general classification.
Rain was starting to play a part in proceedings, making the final climb slightly more trickier than what was expected. and moved towards the front to set the tempo on the climb, but Laurens ten Dam of was the first rider to make a move on the climb, but closed down the move immediately with Linus Gerdemann leading the peloton across. Gerdemann's team-mate Fränk Schleck – the winner of the race in 2010 – was next to attack, and gathered more ground than what ten Dam achieved, with no immediate reaction from the main field. Schleck had built up a 30-second lead with remaining, when John Gadret () attacked. He was brought back, but soon caught up with a secondary move by 's Tom Danielson. rider Rui Costa soon accelerated past both riders and set off after Schleck, who was tiring in the closing stages. Costa caught, passed and gapped Schleck in the closing metres, eventually taking the stage victory by four seconds, with Mikel Nieve third for . Costa, who moved into the race lead with his result, later dedicated his performance to his former team-mate Mauricio Soler, who won the second stage of the 2011 edition of the race, before he suffered serious injuries during a sixth stage crash from which he is still recovering from.
Stage 2 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 4" 3 + 12" 4 + 13" 5 + 13" 6 + 16" 7 + 16" 8 + 16" 9 + 18" 10 + 22"General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 8" 3 + 15" 4 + 19" 5 + 21" 6 + 21" 7 + 23" 8 + 24" 9 + 26" 10 + 29"
Stage 3 11 June 2012 — Martigny to Aarberg,
The parcours for the stage had several uncategorised hills during its itinerary; indeed, for the points and mountains classifications, points were on offer in the final circuit around Aarberg. In that final circuit, there were two intermediate sprint points in Wiler and Uettligen, as well as the two categorised climbs; a third-category climb at Frienisberg, and a fourth-category pass on the Aarbergstrasse, with the latter coming at around before the finish in Aarberg itself. There was a fast-paced start to the stage with several short and punchy attacks, but were closed down immediately. However, a three-rider move was allowed to be initiated after , with 's Guillaume Bonnafond, rider Michael Mørkøv and Jonas Vangenechten of all breaking free, with Bonnafond being best-placed at over nine minutes down on race leader Rui Costa of the .
The leaders got clear by over seven minutes in the early running of the stage, which eventually reached a margin of eleven minutes approaching the midpoint of the stage where rain started to fall once again. With Bonnafond being the virtual leader on the road, several of the sprinters' teams looked to close down the advantage that the trio held, with the and leading the way on the front of the peloton. In Murten, a railway crossing closed with members of those teams able to get through while the rest of the field had to wait until it was cleared; race commissaires later ruled that the riders – around twenty in total – that got through the crossing without waiting were ordered to drop back to the peloton once again. With to go, the three leaders still held an advantage of around eight minutes. Vangenechten dropped back at Frienisberg, while Mørkøv and Bonnafond managed to resist capture until inside the final kilometre, which ultimately set up the bunch sprint. The sprint itself was won by 's Peter Sagan for his tenth victory of the season, ahead of 's Baden Cooke and rider Ben Swift. Costa maintained his overall lead, finishing within the peloton three seconds later.
Stage 3 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 + 3" 5 + 3" 6 + 3" 7 + 3" 8 + 3" 9 + 3" 10 + 3"General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 8" 3 + 15" 4 + 19" 5 + 21" 6 + 21" 7 + 23" 8 + 24" 9 + 26" 10 + 29"
Stage 4 12 June 2012 — Aarberg to Trimbach-Olten,
Having started from the previous day's finish in Aarberg, the fourth stage saw the itinerary take in several uncategorised passes in the early kilometres of the parcours, before the first-category Scheltenpass at the mark. Having descended from the climb, the race went over several small hills before entering a finishing circuit around the towns of Trimbach and Olten. During the finishing circuit, there were two more categorised climbs; the third-category Unterer Hauenstein and the second-category Salhöhe, with the latter climb summiting at remaining. The riders then descended back into Trimbach, via the second and final intermediate sprint point, for the finish.
Two nine-rider groups tried to get clear in the run up to the Scheltenpass, but only the second wave managed to gain a sufficient advantage after the first wave was closed down by the peloton. Nine different teams were represented in the group, with rider Dario Cataldo best-placed of the riders – having started the stage in 21st position – 1' 15" behind the overall leader, 's Rui Costa. Having held a lead of three minutes at the top of the climb, the nine riders' advantage was reduced to just over two minutes by the time that the riders had reached the finishing circuit with to go. Martin Kohler of was the first rider to attack out of the group on the Unter Hauenstein climb; he was closed down on the first instance, but re-established his momentum, taking rider Brian Vandborg, 's Sérgio Paulinho and Javier Mejías of with him.