Richie Porte wins the Tour de Romandie

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Richie Porte (BMC Racing) grabbed overall victory at the Tour de Romandie on Sunday with a strong performance on the final-day time trial to depose overnight race leader Simon Yates (Orica-Scott)

Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) tore through the largely downhill second half of the 17.8km Lausanne course to win the stage and haul himself from sixth up onto the podium. 

After Porte and Yates skipped away on Saturday's queen stage, the final-day tussle for the title looked like a two-way battle, and Porte needed to make up 19 seconds on the young Brit. The former Australian national time trial champion found all that and more by the intermediate checkpoint at 6.5km, towards the top of the uphill opening section of the course, and it became clear which way the result would be going. 

Yates still produced a strong ride - and he needed to, given the charge of Roglic. The Slovenian, who is going from strength to strength as a week-long racer, was strong on the uphill section but he covered the second half of the course in blistering fashion, taking every risk he could to hit the highest possible speeds on the downhill. He stopped the clock on 24:58, which, at the time, was an amazing 32 seconds better than the leader in the clubhouse, Tejay van Garderen. 

If Porte was never really in trouble, himself setting 25:06, then Yates would have to start worrying about second place rather than the yellow jersey. In the end he set 25:46, leaving him 21 seconds down on Porte in the overall standings, but five seconds clear of Roglic on the podium. 

"It's a massive shock to be honest," said Porte. "I didn't think I'd be able to claw that much time back. I tip my hat to my teammates for all the work they've done this week. Also Yates, he's a super talent, he rolled my yesterday in the stage so it was sweet to get the victory today. He won the battle but I won the war a little bit there. It's just nice to keep the momentum rolling before July."

Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo), winner of the opening prologue, put in another strong ride, finishing on the same time as van Garderen to hold on to his fourth place. Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida), always a threat in week-long races with a decent time trial, set the same time to jump up into the top five. 

Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) had another relatively quiet day. After losing time on Saturday, he finished the time trial, which he'd surely stand a chance of winning in top form, in ninth place to finish the race 33rd overall. 

How it unfolded

The 17.8km course in Lausanne was anything but straight forward, with the first eight kilometres pitching uphill, with some stiff gradients on narrow cobbled streets that would force the riders out of the saddle. From there it was a fast ride downhill back towards the city centre.

The climbing would put paid to some traditional time trial sepcialists' chances of success, with Alex Dowsett and Victor Campenaerts among those who would have been right up there on a flatter course.

FDJ's Johan Le Bon set a strong early benchmark until Lennard Kamna (Sunweb), a former world champion at junior and U23 level, came along to set 24:40, with his teammate Chad Haga joining him on the provisional podium.

Movistar were also riding strong and soon Andrey Amador was in the hotseat, going seven seconds quicker than Kamna, while European champion Castroviejo produced a strong ride that would also leave him in the top 10, and Movistar with the teams classification title.

As the favourites rolled down the start ramp to get the GC battle underway, Tejay van Garderen stopped the clock on 25:32 to put himself in the hotseat. And that was after having to change his line through the final bend as a commissaire's car inexplicably blocked his line.

Attentions turned to the battle between Porte and Yates, and the Australian, who was so impressive on the uphill section of the second of last year's Tour de France time trials, took on the opening part of the course in style, rising his diminutive frame out of the saddle on the steeper pitches.

A key indicator would come at the intermediate checkpoint after 6.5km and when Yates hit it he was already 34 seconds down on Porte. The writing was on the wall.

It soon became clear that his biggest concern might be Roglic as cameras cut to the Slovenian tearing downhill, taking aggressive lines through all corners. He sent van Garderen out of the hotseat by a whopping 34 seconds.

Porte just needed to match his teammate's time, and he made no mistake on the second part of the course, a huge smile appearing across his face in the BMC team bus as he watched Yates cross the line, the victory signed and sealed.

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