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Tour de Romandie 2019: Stage 4

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The plummeting temperatures and threat of snow  on the Col des Mosses has seen the climb removed from today's stage, which is thus shortened by some 70km. Although truncated, the final road stage of the Tour de Romandie should still prove pivotal, not least because the summit finish at Torgons (10.5km at 6.8%) remains in place. The peloton is due to roll out of the start in Lucens at 14.35 local time and will hit kilometre zero at around 14.40.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) carries the yellow jersey into today's stage, but his lead over David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) is a slender one. The GC picture is as follows:

There are six non-starters to report today, most notably Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who said that he had been suffering from flu in recent days and has pulled out as a precaution ahead of the Giro d'Italia. The other non-starters are Léo Vincent (Groupama-FDJ), Nathan Brown (EF Education First) Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Segafredo), Rodrigo Contreras (Astana) and Andrey Amador (Movistar Team).

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Jumbo-Visma set the tempo in the peloton. Dani Martinez began the day just 1:34 down on Roglic, and so the escapees surely won't be granted too much leeway. Even so, the gap is nudging upwards towards the one-minute mark.

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Patrick Muller (Switzerland) has abandoned the race. Meanwhile, the break's advantage has stretched out above the minute mark.

Today's stage was due to take in the Col des Mosses but low temperatures and the risk of snow saw the commissaires take the decision to remove the climb from the route and cut the overall stage distance by 70km. The contingency plans were in place from Friday afternoon and a final decision was taken early on Saturday. Read more here.

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Away from the Tour de Romandie, Marianne Vos has claimed overall victory on the Women's Tour de Yorkshire after winning a wind-swept stage 2 on the seafront in Scarborough.

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Already winner of the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico, Primoz Roglic is unbeaten in stage races so far this year. The Tour de Romandie is another step on the way to the overriding target of his season, the Giro d'Italia. Alasdair Fotheringham recently sat down with Roglic at his Sierra Nevada training camp to run the rule over his journey from roadside fan at Montasio in 2013 to bona fide contender for overall victory in 2019. "I don’t know what it's like for other people but, for me, doing a Grand Tour for the first time was a really hard experience. I didn't know anything," Roglic says. "I was so inexperienced. I had no idea what a 'rest day' was, or even why it happened. Sometimes I had a real fight just to get through a stage, and I was so close to the limit." Read the full story here.

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Primoz Roglic's Jumbo-Visma teammate Wout van Aert, meanwhile, has ruled himself out of the World Championships in Yorkshire later this year, citing his desire to ride a full programme of cyclo-cross races. The Belgian is not in action here, and indeed won't pin on a number again until the Dauphine in June.

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Dani Martinez (EF Education First) remains the virtual overall leader, which ensures that Jumbo-Visma won't let this buffer stretch much beyond two minutes.

Remco Evenepoel has already impressed on a snow-shortened stage in his maiden season as a professional. The Belgian teenager placed 4th on the mountaintop finish at Kartepe on the Tour of Turkey last month, and it will be fascinating to see what he can achieve on the final climb here - provided, of course, that the escapees managed to hit its slopes ahead of the Jumbo-Visma-led peloton.

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Chad Haga (Sunweb) has abandoned the Tour de Romandie. The American will be part of the team supporting Tom Dumoulin at the Giro d'Italia.

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Jos van Emden sets the pace on the front for Jumbo-Visma. The men in yellow are lined up at the head of the bunch with a delegation from Groupama-FDJ just behind them.

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A full report, results and pictures are available here from today's final stage of the Women's Tour de Yorkshire.

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The final ascent to Torgon is 10.5km in length at an average gradient of 6.8% and with ramps of up to 12%.

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The break has fragmented on the lower slopes of the climb. Evenepoel, Imhof, Pasqualon and Gregaard have been distanced.

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Roglic, Gaudu, Rui Costa and Geraint Thomas are all still together in a reduced peloton which appears to be under a minute behind Martinez.

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David Gaudu sits in second wheel ahead of Roglic. Thomas and Rui Costa are also well placed.

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Gaudu kicks again but Kruijswijk is immediately onto his wheel, with Roglic, Thomas and the rest of the yellow jersey group just behind them.

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The road flattens out from here. Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) takes a flyer but Roglic is not willing to let him go...

Hugh Carthy kicks again after Roglic claws back Buchmann. The Briton is going to end up leading out the sprint...

Roglic opens the sprint from distance...

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) wins stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie.

Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) took second place on the stage. 

Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) was third across the line in that reduced group sprint.

Roglic took it upon himself to close down Carthy's late attack and simply carried on and opened his sprint from distance. Rui Costa never stood a chance of getting on terms. Thomas took third ahead of Gaudu and Carthy.

Roglic, of course, retains the yellow jersey and extends his overall lead over Gaudu and Rui Costa.

Result:

General classification:

General classification:

Thanks for following our live coverage today. A full report, results and pictures are available here. We'll be back with more from tomorrow's concluding time trial in Geneva.

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