Stefan Küng wins stage 4 at Tour de Romandie

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Stefan Küng (BMC) showcased the talent that carried him to the individual pursuit world title as he soloed to victory in Fribourg at the end of a rain-soaked fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie, while Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) retained the overall lead.

Looking at the stage profile beforehand, Küng felt that the rolling finale was well-suited to his characteristics and asked BMC’s mechanics to fit a 54-tooth chainring to his bike. The only question, he explained afterwards, was how best to approach the preceding 150 kilometres.

On the advice of his directeur sportif, Küng opted to join the day’s early break, and the choice proved a sound one. Accompanied by Jan Bakelants (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Bertjan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha), he was part of a move that held a lead of two minutes as they crested the summit of the category two Sorens, the penultimate climb of the stage.

As planned, with 25 kilometres remaining, Küng punched his way clear, quickly opening a decent gap over his erstwhile companions. The neo-professional briefly hesitated, hoping for at least one rider to bridge across, before ultimately deciding to put his head down and solo to the finish. He disappeared into the mist and wouldn’t be seen again.

“I had a look at the stage before, I knew the parcours and I knew where to attack. When it was the moment I went and it was a time trial to the end,” Küng said. “I like the rain and I like the cold, and this morning I was thinking about how I could win this stage.”

The one obstacle between Küng and the win was the final climb, the third category Treyvaux, but once he reached the summit with 20 seconds in hand over his pursuers, he realised that a maiden WorldTour victory was well within his reach. “It’s always very hard to know if you’re going to win, but when I reached the top of the last GPM, I know that it was looking quite likely,” Küng said.

The remnants of the break were never quite on the same page, as Bakelants and Lindeman rid themselves of Kochetkov in the finale but made no inroads into Küng’s lead. Bakelants eventually came home in second place, fully 38 seconds back.

The peloton, controlled by Team Sky for much of the day, had left it too late to peg back the escapees, or at least, had underestimated the strength of Küng, who – predictably – has been widely heralded as the new Fabian Cancellara since his under-23 days.

Etixx-QuickStep did, however, make one last-ditch attempt to salvage something from the stage. Inside the final ten kilometres, Tony Martin surged clear of the bunch with Julian Alaphillipe tucked onto his rear wheel. Catching the flying Küng seemed impossible by that juncture, but had Orica-GreenEdge not reacted, then Alaphilippe might have done enough to divest Albasini of the yellow jersey.

The young Frenchman relented shortly afterwards, however, although Martin continued with his effort to take fourth place on the stage, 45 seconds down, almost catching Bakelants and Lindeman in the process. Martin’s effort also served a target for the chasing peloton, which ultimately crossed the line just a further seven seconds back, with another Etixx-QuickStep man, Gianni Meersman, claiming the sprint for fifth place.

Albasini was also in that group and he retains his overall lead, 20 seconds ahead of teammate Ivan Santaromita and Chris Froome (Sky).

There was something of a truce called between the principal overall contenders on a decidedly grim day, as Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Chris Froome (Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) all finished safely in the main peloton. They were all content to allow the early break go clear – initially, Küng et al also had Lieuwe Westra (Astana) and Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) for company – and build up a lead of six minutes before Sky set about gradually whittling down the advantage to more manageable dimensions.

Movistar and Astana maintained a watching brief, as did Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) but there were to be no late frissons among the favourites on a wet but relatively tranquil May Day.

Such détente will not endure. On Saturday, the peloton faces four category one climbs, including the summit finish at Champex-Lac. A decisive day at the Tour de Romandie, and a resonant one in the long, long build-up to the Tour de France.

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