Tour de Romandie: Albasini wins stage 2

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Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) delivered a well-timed sprint to land victory on stage two of the Tour de Romandie in Saint-Imier and move into the yellow jersey of race leader after the ascent of the Col de la Vue des Alpes had whittled down the peloton significantly in the finale.

Albasini showed considerable nous to dive for Nathan Haas’ wheel inside the final 200 metres and then powered away to claim the stage victory ahead of Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling). Julian Alaphilippe, whose Etixx-QuickStep teammate Tony Martin had done so much to ensure a sprint finish, started his effort from too far back and had to settle for third.

“It was disappointing yesterday so I am super happy that we can have the first win today,” Albasini said. “It makes it a little bit better for the 0.63 of a second we lost yesterday.

“I actually was hurting a lot on the second last climb out here in Saint-Imier,” he said. “But (the final climb) was quite a regular climb. After a really fast first part, the second part was more regular and I could stay in the bunch so I knew I had a good chance in the sprint.”

The second category climb of the Vue des Alpes failed to separate the principal overall contenders, although a most inopportune puncture at the base of the ascent ended overnight leader Geraint Thomas’ hopes of a high overall finish.

Team Sky were leading the peloton when Thomas punctured with a shade over 22 kilometres remaining, and though Pete Kennaugh waited in a bid to pace him back on, the touch-paper for the finale had already been lit. The already crumbling bunch was travelling at such a rate of knots that Thomas would never regain contact.

The Katusha squad of perennial Tour de Romandie contender Simon Spilak were particularly active on the climb. The stage was animated by a two-man break featuring Katusha’s Maxim Belkov and Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM Cycling), who led over the day’s first three climbs before being swept up on the approach to the Col de la Vue des Alpes.

Once on that final ascent, first Pavel Kochetkov and later Egor Silin tried to bring small groups clear off the front before Astana took up the reins, with Michele Scarponi particularly active in support of Vincenzo Nibali, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Chris Froome (Sky) maintained a watching brief.

Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) both launched attacks approaching the summit of the climb but their efforts served only to shake stragglers off the back rather than allow them to power clear alone.

Astana’s Rein Taaramae took over again on the long, fast drop into Saint-Imier and the Estonian succeeded in opening a gap with 15 kilometres remaining. As he entered the final 10 kilometres, Taaramae’s margin had stretched to 25 seconds, but that served only as a clarion call for Tony Martin, who put in a mammoth turn on the front that inexorably shut the window of opportunity once again.

Taaramae was finally caught with two kilometres remaining and, aided by Martin and Rigoberto Uran, Alaphilippe looked well-placed to take the win. The small bunch proved difficult to control in the finale, however, and instead it was Albasini, through a combination of nous and pure strength, who won the day.

Albasini’s win put a different gloss on a stage marred by ill-fortune for his Orica-GreenEdge team. Svein Tuft fell heavily while he was carrying a full load of bidons from the team car to his teammates from the peloton, and was left nursing what appeared to be a shoulder injury on the roadside.

Jesper Hansen (Tinkoff-Saxo) also came down in the same incident and he endured a second crash moments after remounting when the door of the race doctor’s car swung open just as he was riding past.

In the general classification, Albasini now holds a lead of 10 seconds over his teammate Ivan Santaromita and Chris Froome (Sky).

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 Results

Sprint 1

Sprint 2

Col des Etroits

Le Haut de la Côte

Col les Pontins

Col la Vue des alpes

Best Young Rider

Teams

General Classification

Mountains Classification

Best Young Rider

Teams