Tour de Romandie: Simon Yates wins stage 4 in Leysin, takes race lead

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Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) seized control of the Tour de Romandie during stage 4 on Saturday, playing the long game by jumping away from the peloton with about 20km remaining and then out-kicking Richie Porte at the finish in Lesyn after the BMC rider bridged to him in the closing kilometres.

Yates and Porte finished 30 seconds ahead of Bora-Hansgrohe’s Emanuel Buchmann and 43 seconds ahead of Porte’s teammate, Tejay van Garderen. The rest of the overall contenders were nearly a minute in arrears.

Yates now leads the general classification by 19 seconds over Porte and 38 seconds over Buchmann. Race leader Fabio Felline, who led the race since the opening prologue, dropped to fourth, 44 seconds down.

Yates and Porte both had time to make up after losing crucial seconds earlier in the week. The Orica-Scott rider jumped away from the peloton on the penultimate climb, mopping up the remnants of an early breakaway as he made his way to the final 5km climb to the finish.

Porte waited longer to make his move, attacking with about 5km to go as the road pitched upward again toward the finish. Although Yates won the stage and the leader’s jersey, Porte’s blistering acceleration away from his potential Tour de France rivals may have been the most significant statement of the day.

Team Sky’s Chris Froome was active earlier in the stage chasing down moves on the penultimate climb of the day, but the defending Tour de France champion ended up 33rd on the day, losing 1:15 to Yates and Porte. He’s currently 33rd overall, 1:36 down on Yates.

How it unfolded

The 162.3km stage from Domdidier to Leysin was a lumpy affair that wasted little time heading uphill. From the start riders climbed toward four categorized climbs, including the final ascent to Leysin.

After the usual flurry of attacks after the starter’s flag dropped, a breakaway of eight slipped away that included Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha-Alpecin), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Mickaël Chérel (AG2R La Mondiale), Youcef Reguigui (Dimension Data) and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty - Groupe Gobert).

The leaders built an advantage of 3:40 as they crested the uncategorised climb in Zumholz, and the gap bumped up to more than four minutes as they reached the lower slopes of the Jaunpass, a 16km categorized climb that whittled the breakaway down to just five riders, with Clarke, Kochetkov, Van der Sande, Armee and Cherel continuing in the lead.

A chase group of a dozen or so riders started to eat into the leaders’ advantage, and with several general classification threats in the move, the peloton kept the new group up the road close.

When the gap to the leaders hovered at just over a minute, the stage and overall lead were in play, prompting several attacks. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) tried his hand without success, but Yates managed to get away, setting up his shot at victory and the two-man duel to come with Porte.

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