Tour de Romandie: Kung wins stage 2

Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) upset the sprinters on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie, attacking from the breakaway and holding off the peloton in the final 20 kilometres to claim his third career victory at the Swiss race.

The 174.4-kilometre stage from Le Locle to Morges contained a second-category climb at the mid-point and a third-category climb in the final 40km, but was widely expected to culminate in a bunch sprint.

However, in wet conditions, the sprinters’ teams, notably Elia Viviani’s Deceuninck-QuickStep, Sam Bennett’s Bora-Hansgrohe, and Sonny Colbrelli’s Bahrain-Merida failed to mount a successful chase.
Kung, the Swiss time trial champion, steadily reduced the six-rider breakaway with a string of accelerations, first halving it on the third-category climb before going solo on an uncategorised rise with 19km to go.

At that point, he had 1:20 in hand and, arms folded over his handlebars, he held it all the way to the shores of Lake Geneva. He had time in the final kilometre to sit up and savour his success, this being his third stage win at Romandie after similar breakaway successes in 2015 and 2017.

A minute later, Bennett sprinted to second place, with Colbrelli third, as a dejected peloton crossed the line. Overall leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) was safely ensconced in there and retained the yellow jersey, with no changes towards the top of the general classification.

“I had a look at the stage profiles and realised this was a good day for me,” Kung said. “I knew that if I had a minute with 20km to go, then I’d have a chance. Of course, you’ve got to get in the right break and then to be able to drop the other guys, have the legs and hold off the peloton, so it’s complicated. But I pulled it off and it’s a great win for me.

“I really like the Tour de Romandie - it’s a home race in Switzerland and have enjoyed some beautiful moments in the past.”

How it unfolded

The roads were already wet as the riders set off towards Geneva, and there was barely reason to remove the rain capes all day. Kung was part of a six-rider breakaway that formed inside 10 kilometres and built a lead of five minutes as they descended the Col de la Tourne – stage 1’s final climb – down to the shores of the Lac de Neuchatel.

Joining Kung in the break were Geminas Bagdonas (AG2R), Jorge Arcas (Movistar), Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Gobert), Nathan Brown (EF) and Claudio Imhof (Swiss Team). The gap started to fall ahead of the second-category climb of the Col du Mollendruz but they hardly ceded ground on the 14.6km climb itself, taking 3:15 onto the descent and towards the finish town of Morges.

Once through the finish line for the first time with 40km to go, they went to tackle the Reverolle climb, and it was on those 8.5 per cent gradients that Kung made the first selection from the break. Only Bagdonas and Backaert could follow, and they entered the final 30km with a lead of just under two minutes.

Kung went again on an uncategorised incline with 19 kilometres to go, accelerating at the end of a tired turn from Bagdonas, who was dropped like a stone. Backaert managed to follow at first but was soon dispatched as well as Kung sustained his acceleration.

With 18km to go and a gap of 1:15, it was still in the peloton’s hands. However, Kung’s time trialling abilities, the wet weather – it was bucketing down by this point – and the gently downhill curving roads all combined to take it away from them. Shane Archbold (Bora-Hansgrohe) led for much of the way but Bennett didn’t use many other teammates and Viviani’s men only appeared at the front with just over 10km to go.

By that point, Kung still had 1:25 and the ball was very much in his court. Pacing his effort perfectly, he lost none of his advantage – in fact it only increased as the peloton became resigned to its fate. The draining of urgency was clear when Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) was able to launch a brief late attack.

Kung’s lead was cut to a minute by the finish line, but that’s only because he was already celebrating with several hundred metres to go, and he had every reason to. From the planning to the execution, it was a success straight out of the breakaway textbook, and it landed a victory that was his third at Romandie, his second for his new team, and his team’s first at WorldTour-level in 2019.

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