Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez is one stage away from a career-defining moment - winning his first WorldTour stage race at the Tour de Romandie.
The Ineos rider leapt away from a select group that had jettisoned overnight leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) in the closing kilometre and, while he could not catch stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), he left some of cycling's best climbers in his wake.
With Ayuso distanced, Rodríguez finished third on the stage behind Carapaz and Bora-Hansgrohe's breakout star Florian Lipowitz, gaining enough time to take the Tour de Romandie lead by seven seconds over Bora's Aleksandr Vlasov.
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"I'm really happy and super proud of the team and all the commitment throughout the stage," Rodríguez said after the conclusion of the queen stage to Leysin.
"We didn't know how things would turn out. But they have trust in me so I'm really happy for their belief that I could deliver in the end a good result. It's not finished yet. We have to fight still tomorrow, but I'll give everything to try to get this jersey."
Rodríguez signed with Ineos at the age of 19 and is now in his fifth season with the team. He has made steady progress in stage races, finishing seventh at the Vuelta a España in his Grand Tour debut in 2022 and taking fifth overall at last year's Tour de France.
He's won a stage in the Tour de France and stages of the Itzulia Basque Country and Tour of Britain but his best overall finish in a WorldTour stage race was second in this year's Itzulia Basque Country, winning the final stage to Eibar along the way.
Getting his first general classification victory, he says, would be "amazing", but there is one much flatter stage to go, a 150.8km circuit in Vernier, to get through.
"I've won some races but still not a GC and to win a WorldTour stage race. It's what I cannot say yet, but it would be amazing and I'm really important for me to achieve it.
"We have to be ready. We don't know what can happen, so we can't relax yet. We will do tomorrow after the stage and hopefully we can we can celebrate."
This summer, Rodríguez will head up the Ineos Grenadiers selection alongside Tom Pidcock and Geraint Thomas at the Tour de France with a podium spot likely within his sights. A big win in Romandie would only cement his reputation as one of the top favourites.
