Quintana wins the Tour de Romandie

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Nairo Quintana (Movistar) sealed final overall victory at the Tour de Romandie as he finished safely in the main peloton on the rain-soaked final leg to Geneva, while Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) survived from the day’s early break to claim a thrilling stage win.

Albasini was part of the initial ten-man break that went clear in the opening hour of action and animated the day’s racing thereafter, and he was alive to the danger when Carlos Verona (Etixx-QuickStep) launched what proved to be the decisive attack with 16 kilometres remaining.

Verona and Albasini were joined by Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Andrey Amador (Movistar) and the quartet carried a lead of one minute into the final ten kilometres, as the few remaining sprinters’ teams began to give chase.

They still had 32 seconds in hand as they entered the final three kilometres and looked certain to decide the stage honours between them, though it would prove a closer-run thing than anyone anticipated.

The pace dropped once Verona swung over beneath the flamme rouge and manoeuvred Albasini onto the front, though the leaders seemed unaware that the peloton had closed to within touching distance.

600 metres from home, BMC’s Tom Bohli managed to bridge across from the bunch and then blow straight past the surprised leaders, but Albasini quickly collected himself. The Swiss opened his own sprint from distance and overhauled the plucky Bohli in the final 100 metres to land the win.

“I heard on the radio from the directeur sportif that the gap was 17 seconds so I didn’t expect that,” Albasini said of Bohli’s move. “The guy came flying past me but I thought his effort might die in the last 500 metres, so I launched my sprint a bit early with 400 metres to go and it was just about enough.”

Amador and Kelderman came through to claim second and third, respectively, with Niccolò Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) and the front of the main peloton – which was split by a crash in the final kilometre – finishing in the same time.

Quintana crossed the line unscathed to claim final overall victory, 19 seconds clear of Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), while his Movistar teammate Jon Izagirre finished third, a further four seconds back. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) retained fourth and fifth overall, respectively.

Froome’s attack

Chris Froome (Sky) was awarded the combativity prize for his part in the ten-man break that animated the day’s racing. The Briton was among the drivers of the move that went clear in the opening hour of action, and he was joined by Albasini, Verona, Kelderman, Amador, Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Moreno Moser (Cannondale), Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling), Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal) and Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida).

With Amador policing the group, Movistar were content to allow the escapees maintain a lead in excess of two minutes for the bulk of the day, even if the sprinters’ teams began to organise the chase in earnest in the final 50 kilometres. With Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) having abandoned ahead of the stage, however, Albasini was quietly confident the move could succeed. “Maybe the break had more of a chance today,” he said.

Froome shattered the unity of the break with an attack on the final climb with 36 kilometres remaining, but he was unable to forge clear, and instead it was Verona’s later move that proved decisive. Albasini tracked it carefully, however, and went on to claim the sixth Romandie stage win of his career.

“It’s always nice to win here, there’s no ranking for them. I’m just very happy. I wasn’t really convinced I could have a good day today, I didn’t feel fresh. But I was really active in the break and I started to feel better,” he said.

The day belonged to Nairo Quintana, however, who was cheered raucously by a group of Colombian supporters as he mounted the podium in Geneva. After victory at the Volta a Catalunya and second place finishes at the Tour de San Luis and Tour of the Basque Country, it masked the conclusion of a hugely successful early-season for Quintana.

Second overall at the Tour de France a year ago, Quintana will be aware, too, of the wider significance of his Tour de Romandie win – three of the previous five winners went on to claim yellow in July for good measure.

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