Küng wins snowy Tour de Romandie stage to Bulle

Stefan Küng (BMC) gave the Tour de Romandie its second home stage winner in the space of two days as the Swiss rider got the better of Andriy Grivko (Astana) in a two-up sprint at the end of Thursday's stage 2, which was shortened due to snowy conditions.

Küng and Grivko were the last survivors of the day's four-man breakaway, and their almost slow-motion final sprint – along with the fact they had escaped the clutches of the peloton in the first place – gave an indication of the exertions of what must have been a miserable day in the saddle.

Grivko led under the flamme rouge but soon Küng was ushered through to the front. He didn't panic and calmly led the way on the drag to the line before upping his effort in the final few hundred metres. Grivko was in the wheel but simply didn't have the strength to come round and mount a serious challenge.

Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) finished third as the peloton, which had already swallowed up the other two members of the break – Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal) – crossed the line 20 seconds down. Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) was safely in there to retain his overall lead in the race, with no change to the top of the general classification.

"I think the other guys suffered more than me. I think a 50kg climber suffers more than me in conditions like that. I know the roads here and I knew the last climb, so I told myself to go for it,” said Küng, who took a stage win at Romandie in his neo-pro season two years ago.

"I knew that I had to be first in the last corner. The finish rose slightly and so that helped me at the front. I've been practicing my sprint with Greg Van Avermaet for the Classics and that boosted my confidence for winning a sprint like that.”

How it happened

The riders arrived in Champéry for sign-on, but they would be setting off instead from Aigle in the valley below, as the risk of snow caused organisers to cut the opening descent from the race route.

The total distance was shortened by 22.3km to give a total of 136.5km, with the rest of the route remaining unchanged, containing three categorised climbs en route to the finish in Bulle.

Almost as soon as the flag had dropped, Sander Armée, who collected a wealth of KOM points from the breakaway Wednesday, went on the attack in a bid to take a grip on the jersey he won 12 months ago.

He was joined by Küng, Grivko and Veuchelen. Two others – Toms Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac) and Meiyin Wang (Bahrain Merida) – attempted to bridge across but were too late and never made it up.

Armée duly mopped up maximum points at the first climb of the day, the third-category ascent at Attalens after 30km, to regain the virtual lead in the mountains classification. As the break opened up a lead of more than five minutes, Armée once again bagged the points atop the third-category Esmonts climb some 35km later.

The second-category Chatelard climb would provide a sterner test at just under 10km. Armée, obviously, bagged the points from the break, while the peloton made its way up in steady fashion, most looking like they simply wanted to make it through the day.

Warren Barguil (Sunweb), crashed and had to abandon the race, while some others had had enough themselves, and climbed off on the first passage of the finish line in Bulle. Those who soldiered on were faced with a 20km circuit, and the main question was who was sufficiently interested in the stage win – or, perhaps, who was warm enough to even put in the effort.

Those in the break were certainly up for it – a day out front in such conditions should not go without reward. And, sensing a lack of impetus in the peloton, they shed Armée, two minutes down overall and therefore a moderate threat to the group's chances of staying away.

At that point the gap was just over 2:30, and it only came down to two minutes with 10 kilometres to go, meaning the upper hand was well and truly with those out front. With four kilometres to go, Grivko put in an attack straight after Küng had taken a turn. The Swiss rider was able to shut it down, but it spelled curtains for Veuchelen.

From there the surviving duo kept things ticking over, riding steadily if not overly hard, before the cat-and-mouse could begin in the final kilometre. In the end, there wasn't much of a contest as the conditions throughout the day meant the stage would be decided simply by who had most left in the tank, and that was Küng.

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