Tour de Romandie 2017: Stage 5

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January 1 - April 30, Lausanne, Romandy, Road - WorldTour

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Live coverage of the all-important final-day time trial at the Tour de Romandie. 

 

Hello there, and welcome back to Cyclingnews' live race centre for the final stage of the 2017 Tour de Romandie. The race will be decided today with a 17.8km individual time trial in Lausanne. 

As we join the action, the first 20 or so riders have completed their efforts. The start list is determined by the general classification, with riders setting off in reverse order, so we'll be waiting until a little later on to see the tussle for the yellow jersey. 

In the meantime, there are plenty of strong time triallists among the early starters. LottoNL-Jumbo's Victor Campenaerts has just set the fastest time so far, with 26 minutes 16 seconds. 

Here's the profile of today's course

Here are the start times for the top 10 on GC. All times local time - CET

Stage 2 winner Stefan Kung is out on the course and has just set the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint. 

Is Yates's time trial strong enough to win the Tour de Romandie? Before we find out, here's a re-cap of how the young Briton seized control of the race yesterday. 

Kung reaches the finish line and enters the hotseat with a new best time of 26:05.

He's not there for long, though. FDJ's Johan Le Bon has just posted 25:58.

Sunweb's young time trialling talent, Lennard Kamna sets the new best time with 25:40. The German is a former world champion at junior and U23 level. 

Dowsett ended up with a time of 27:27 - well off the pace.

Chris Froome is about to start. The Team Sky rider is 33rd overall at 1:36 after yesterday. 

It's a provisional one-two for Sunweb at the moment, with Chad Haga setting 25:57. Le Bon is in third. 

One of the biggest stories at this year's isn't racing related; Sky's Gianni Moscon racially abused FDJ's Kevin Reza on stage 3. Cyclingnews editor Daniel Benson has been leading the coverage of the story, and this morning he has this latest report on the UCI's response to the incident. 

Ilnur Zakarin is off. The Katusha rider is a strong all-rounder and his performance today should give us a decent indication of how he's going ahead of the Giro d'Italia, where two important time trials await. He had a complete nightmare in the wet TT at last year's Giro. 

Froome is quicker than Kamna at the intermediate checkpoint, with 12:51. But Andrey Amador (Movistar) is also flying and went through in 12:41. 

Amador comes to the line and he beats Kamna's time by seven seconds. Strong ride from the Costa Rican, who enjoyed a spell in the pink jersey at last year's Giro. 

25:44 for Froome. That puts him into third place in the provisional standings. 

You can keep track of the provisional standings to the right of your screen.

Zakarin sets the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint.

We're getting down to the business end of things here. Pierre Latour, Jarlinson Pantano, and Roman Kreuziger have all just started their efforts. Next up is Tejay van Garderen, who hasn't had the happiest of races so far. The American crashed on the opening prologue. 

Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) is a contender for the stage win today. He's third quickest through the intermediate. 

Zakarin comes to the line and he's lost some seconds in the downhill second half of the course. 25:44 is his time - the same as Froome. 

Castroviejo cuts a low profile as he cuts through the latter part of the course. 

Oops. Alexis Vuillermoz takes a wrong turn and has to nip back round a barrier. He wasn't going to be in contention anyway but annoying (and slightly embarrassing) nonetheless for the AG2R man. 

Castroviejo sprints to the line now, and he clocks 25:39. It's not going to be good enough for the win, but he moves into second place behind his teammate Amador.

Latour is going well - 3rd fastest at the intermediate.

Pello Bilbao comes to the line and that reminds me to plug this morning's story on Astana's Giro d'Italia squad announcement. They will not be bringing in a replacement for Michele Scarponi, who tragically lost his life a week ago, and his race number will be left empty. A great gesture from the team. 

Into the top 10 we go!

Bob Jungels moves through the gears. He's 56 seconds down but a great time triallist on short courses. 

Howson and Izaguirre are both just under a minute back, too, but both are threats. They've both begun their efforts.

Fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint for Van Garderen.

Primoz Roglic is another quality rider against the clock. 53 seconds is a lot to make up, but he'll be confident of gaining some places today. 

Jesus Herrada gets underway. He has teammates in the top two positions as it stands.

Fabio Felline lost his yellow jersey yesterday but he won the prologue and should be able to hold his own today. 

Latour roars as he comes across the line. He's eighth fastest so far, with 25:57, and that'll be enough to wrap up the best young rider classification. 

Richie Porte rolls off the ramp. Can he snatch the overall victory? He needs to make up 19 seconds on Yates. 

Fastest time for Van Garderen!

Simon Yates, in his yellow skinsuit, begins his ride. All riders have started.

Van Garderen clocks 25:32. A great ride, but one that was almost disrupted in the final few hundred metres as the American nearly collided with a commissaire's car. A strange incident that may well have cost him a second or two. 

Porte drives up the cobbled section of the climb. The Australian was very impressive on the - albeit steeper - uphill section of the second ITT at last year's Tour de France. He's a former Australian TT champ, too, and it's fair to say Yates has a real job on his hands today.

Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) slots into 7th with a time of 25:46.

25:54 for Howson. That'll secure him a top 10 overall finish.

26:07 for Ulissi. The clock was erroneously showing 24 minutes, making us think for a second the Italian had set a ridiculous time. 

Here comes Jungels. He won't threaten Van Garderen's time.

25:51 for Jungels.

Porte is fastest through the intermediate checkpoint. 

Amazing riding here from Porte, who is some 25 seconds quicker than his teammate Van Garderen through the first part of the course. Yates heading for the checkpoint now.

Yates is 34 seconds down already. The race is slipping away from him.

Here comes Roglic, who's been hurtling through the back end of this course. He's going to go into the lead here...

Wow. 24:58 for Roglic. He has knocked a huge chunk out of Van Garderen's time. 

Just before that Izaguirre stopped the clock on a very respectable 25:32 to put himself third as it stands.

Can Roglic win this?

Another strong ride from Felline, who comes to the line, legs pumping frantically out to the side, with 25:32 - the same as Van Garderen and Izaguirre. 

Porte is coming towards the end of the course now. His mouth is agape but he looks comfortable. He looks set for a strong time and for the overall title.

Buchmann comes in a fair way down - outside the top 20. 

Here comes Porte...

25:06 for Porte. That should be enough.

Yates the only rider left out there. The race looks lost, but can hold on to second place?

Here comes Yates. The win has gone.

25:46 for Yates.

A strong ride for Yates, but he loses the race lead. He does enough to hold on to second. 

So, Richie Porte wins the 2017 Tour de Romandie

That's Porte's second stage race victory of the season after the Tour Down Under. If luck is kind to him for once at the Tour de France he's going to be a huge threat to Chris Froome.

Final GC

Here's our report page:

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