Spilak tops Froome in stage 3 of Romandie

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Simon Spilak (Katusha) edged out Chris Froome (Sky) to take victory in a rain-soaked Aigle, on stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie. Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) won the sprint out of the chasing to take third place.

Spilak and Froome came to the finish alone, and the resulting sprint to the line saw the Katusha rider edge out Froome by little more than a tyre’s width.

It was almost a carbon copy of last year’s stage four, where Froome attacked on the final climb and Spilak chased him down to take the victory. The last ascent was a little further out this time, but Froome’s attack proved no less effective. He was briefly joined by Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), but the Italian cracked and was replaced at the front by Spilak.

The two worked well together and had a minute’s advantage over the chasing group at the top of climb. The rain made for a tentative descent, but they held off Nibali and his descending talents to retain almost all of the lead they’d built up.

There was one small difference compared to last year’s race, with the bonus points for winning proving enough to put Spilak into the race lead. Froome is one second behind in second place, but there is over a minute to Costa in third. With a fairly flat stage tomorrow and the time trial on Sunday, the race looks to be Froome’s to lose.

How it happened

Stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie was the queen stage, with four categorised climbs ready to sort out the top of the general classification. Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) started the day as the race leader, after his second stage win yesterday, but there was little chance that he would make it through with his slim lead intact.

Rain greeted the riders making the roads slippy and setting the riders up for a potentially tense day in the saddle. Undeterred by the weather, seven men made it off the front. They were Danilo Wyss (BMC), Jack Bobridge (Belkin), Tom Veelers (Giant-Shimano), Davide Malacarne and Cyril Gautier (both Europcar), Boris Vallee (Lotto-Belisol) and Andrey Grivko (Astana).

The seven riders took a maximum advantage of 5:57 over the peloton, before they hit the first climb of the day. Veelers and Vallee were the first to fall by the wayside on the Col des Planches. That was the order of the day for the escapees, as the continued to lose men over each of the climbs. The last men standing were Gautier and Malacarne, who were finally reeled in with 38 kilometres remaining.

Albasini waved goodbye to his leader’s jersey on the penultimate ascent, as he was dropped from the group along with second placed Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). However, things began to hot up on the final climb of the day.

Out of the group of favourites, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) made the first move off the front, with Chris Froome (Sky) launching his own as soon as the Italian was caught. Nibali latched onto Froome’s wheel and the pair began to build a lead before the Astana rider cracked, leaving Froome to go it alone.

Simon Spilak (Katusha) wasn’t able to follow the initial move from Froome, but tracked him down soon after. On his way, Spilak passed a suffering Nibali, who was probably regretting his earlier attack.

Behind the leading duo, the pace was causing havoc. One of the notable victims was Rigoberto Urán (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). With the Giro d’Italia a little over a week away, that may cause some worry for the Colombian. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) was also left behind, when he dropped his chain while trying to change gear.

The rain made the roads pretty tricky, added to the train tracks on the side of the road. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) went down at the top, losing touch with the third group on the road.

As Froome and Spilak rode under the king of the mountain barrier, marking the top of the Villars-sur-Ollon, they held a 40-second advantage over the three chasers. The chase behind them began to gain numbers on the descent with Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), Beñat Intxausti (Movistar), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) joining Nibali.

Nibali used his superior descending skills to reduce the gap, but the wet roads prevented him from exploiting it to the full advantage. The roads dried out as they hit the valley, but the gap to Froome and Spilak was to great to overcome.

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