Tour de Romandie: Viviani sprints to stage 3 victory

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Elia Viviani (Team Sky) turned disappointment into success by winning the third stage of the Tour de Romandie.

The Italian sprinter was not selected for Tem Sky’s squad for the Giro d’Italia on Friday morning but bounced back to win the sprint in Payerne after an excellent lead out from his Team Sky teammates, including Chris Froome, who pulled Viviani up into perfect position with help from Owain Doull.

After Bora-Hansgrohe wound up the pace, Viviani dived onto the wheel of late attacker Alex Edmondson (Orica-Scott) and then made his move at the right moment, holding off Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) to win his first sprint of 2017. Michael Schwarzmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) was third, while Edmondson hung on to finish fourth.

Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) finished safely in the peloton and so kept the overall race lead before Saturday’s queen stage in the mountains.

How it happened

After two days of cold and wet racing, many riders and teams awoke in Bulle to see a thick covering of snow. Some riders were perhaps hoping for a day off as the posted photos on social media but the conditions were much better down the valley near Lake Neufchatel for the twisting circuits and 187km of racing around Payerne.

By the time the riders lined up for the start at lunchtime, the sun was breaking through and the peloton enjoyed a day on dry roads. Of course, with temperatures still in single figures, the riders made sure they were wrapped up for the cold.

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Several attacks came when the flag was dropped but the early break of the day formed after 12 kilometres of racing. Davide Martinelli (Quick-Step Floors), Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Toms Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac), Victor Campenaerts (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Hugo Houle (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Nikita Stalnov (Astana) were in the move and worked smoothly together to open a three-minute gap.

De Gendt carefully took maximum points on the first categorised climbs to protect the climber’s jersey of teammate Sander Armee and did it again on the Grandsivaz climb with 62km remaining. Stalnov was distanced at this point, leaving six men up front.

The pack seemed happy to let them hang out front as the race covered loops around Payerne. Trek-Segafredo and Bahrain-Merida did the bulk of the work on the front of the peloton. Trek-Segafredo took responsibility for the leader's jersey on the shoulders of Felline, while Bahrain were confident in Colbrelli’s chances in a sprint finish.

Bahrain-Merida worked hard all day and so the break never extended its lead, with the gap falling quickly in the second half of the stage. Surprisingly, the race came back together with 36km to go.

It was too early for Bahrain-Merida to control the peloton all the way to the finish and attacks came on the rolling roads in the final hour. Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) kicked things off with 30 kilometres to go. He was soon joined by Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) and Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal).

Jungels attacked over the top of the climb with 25 kilometres to go but that disrupted the move and caused the end of the attack. Soon after Dowsett tried his hand with a solo attack. He opened 30-second lead with a huge effort. He looked strong and committed but the peloton refused to give up again, even after Bahrain-Merida eased up. Dowsett hung out front for a while but was eventually swept him up with three kilometres to go.

Bora-Hansgrohe thought it was their day and lead out the sprint but then Team Sky and Viviani came past in the final kilometre to turn disappointment for the Italian sprinter into success.

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