Pinot takes victory on Tour de Romandie stage 5

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) soloed to his first victory of the season on the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie. Pinot held off a chasing Ilnur Zakarin to take the stage win, however the Katusha rider limited his losses to the Frenchman to secure the race leader’s jersey. Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) won the sprint from the chasing group to take third.

With four first category climbs, the penultimate stage would be the first chance to really test the overall contenders. The big favourites were all present and correct as they hit the bottom of the Champex-Lac climb, but cracks soon showed under the pace that was being laid down by Movistar. Race leader Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) lost touched fairly early on and waved goodbye to his yellow jersey.

Defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) appeared to be in trouble with 10 kilometres to go, as he clung to the back of the group. Froome was eventually distanced as Nairo Quintana (Movistar) initiated a flurry of attacks but he rallied and came back take the front of the group. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Rigoberto Urán (Etixx-QuickStep) were the next victims of the relentless pace.

Pinot darted off the front of the heavily reduced bunch with just under five kilometres to the top of the summit finish at Champex-Lac. The FDJ rider was following a move by his compatriot Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), who had taken Simon Spilak (Katusha) with him. As the television cameras focussed on the power battle between the race’s main favourites, Pinot caught the Bardet-Spilak group and forged on alone.

Spilak’s teammate Zakarin set off in chase and brought the gap down to as little as five seconds under the flamme rouge but Pinot held strong to take his first win at the Swiss stage race. Zakarin holds a six-second lead over Pinot in the overall classification with Bardet in third, leading a number of riders at 20 seconds down.

How it unfolded

It was a grey start to the day for the peloton as they lined-up in Fribourg for stage five. Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) was always going to have a tough day trying to retain his leader’s jersey with four first category climbs between the peloton and the summit finish on Champex-Lac.

Two men, Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Bryan Nalleau (Europcar), made a break for freedom on the first small rise of the day. As they hit the descent of the Col des Mosses, the first of the four major ascents, that gap had ballooned to almost 10 minutes. Albasini began to show cracks in his armour on the Gisettes as he was distanced by the peloton, but the end to his tenure in the leader’s jersey was delayed as he dragged his way back into the group.

Already the leader of the mountains classification, Belkov gained yet more points in the break to extend his lead in the competition. Behind the escapees Movistar lead the chase and brought the gap down to less than two minutes at the foot of the final climb. Nalleau blew first on the lower slopes, leaving Belkov to fight it out solo for another five kilometres. Albasini was distanced by the peloton for the final time on the Champex-Lac, slowly drifting back as the race favourites began to move to the fore.

With 10 kilometres remaining Movistar applied the pressure on the front of the peloton putting Froome in trouble, as he dangled on the back of the group. Quintana then took over the work of his teammates, launching a series of attacks that we quickly marked by Nibali and Urán. The attacks looked like they had ended Froome’s hopes as he was distanced from the leading group, which consisted of around 10 riders.

Bardet was the next to take a flyer off the front with six kilometres remaining, taking Majka with him. The move was neutralised but the Frenchman went for another, with Spilak following him this time. Pinot quickly responded, catching the pair with around three kilometres remaining before driving to the line on his own.

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