Tour de Romandie: Roglic wins stage 4

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Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) cemented his overall lead at the Tour de Romandie after he sprinted to victory on the mountaintop finish at Torgon on stage 4. Just a week out from the Giro d’Italia, the Slovenian offered another indication of his form as he proved the strongest of the reduced group that contested the honours amid dismal conditions.

Roglic had the strength to shut down a late attack from Hugh Carthy (EF Education First) in the final kilometre and the confidence to lead out the sprint from distance. His powerful effort saw him rip clear of his rivals to claim stage honours ahead of Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates).

Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) placed third ahead of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Michael Woods (EF Education First), but, like Costa the Welshman never looked like overhauling the flying Roglic, who claimed his second stage win of the race.

Plummeting temperatures, wind and the threat of snow on the Col des Mosses saw the penultimate stage of the Tour de Romandie shortened by some 70 kilometres, but the final ascent to Torgon remained in place.

Roglic never looked troubled by the pace-making of Diego Rosa (Team Ineos), nor was he perturbed by the accelerations of Gaudu and Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) in the final three kilometres.

Indeed, Roglic eventually responded with a rasping attack of his own with a little under two kilometres to go. The Slovenian was joined on the offensive by Thomas and that duo carried a small lead over the reduced front group into the final kilometre.

A wholehearted pursuit by Woods saw them brought back just beneath the flamme rouge, but Roglic summoned up the the wherewithal to kick once again in a breathless finale. The yellow jersey coolly shut down Carthy’s attack and the unsheathed a sharp sprint to take the stage and the time bonus.

In the overall standings, Roglic carries a lead of 12 seconds over Rui Costa into Sunday’s concluding time trial in Geneva, while Gaudu lies a further 4 seconds back in third. Thomas is 4th at 26 seconds, but the defending champion Roglic is firmly in the box seat to retain his crown in the 16.9km test.

Already winner of the UAE Tour and Tirreno-Adriatico this season, Roglic has a 100 percent record in stage races in 2019. The Slovenian will be favoured to continue that run on Sunday afternoon but the Giro is the centrepiece of his campaign. “I’m not in my best shape here yet,” Roglic said.

How it unfolded

On Friday evening, Tour de Romandie organisation had already put continency plans in place to re-route stage 4 and following consultation between the commissaires, the CPA and the teams, it was decided on Saturday morning to shorten the stage by 70km and avoid the worst of the weather conditions in the Prealps.

Temperatures of 2°C on the Col des Mosses, not to mention high winds and the threat of snow, prompted the decision, which significantly reduced the total climbing on the stage, though the summit finish at Torgon remained in place, as did the start from Lucens.

A break of eight riders forged clear in the opening kilometres, with Dani Martinez (EF Education First) the obvious dangerman, given that he started the day just 1:29 off the yellow jersey. The Colombian was joined on the offensive by Simon Pellaud, Claudio Imhof (Switzerland), Jonas Gregaard (Astana), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal) and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

The leaders had a lead of 1:50 come the top of the category 3 Prévonloup, where Pellaud claimed the mountains points, but the presence of Martinez in the break meant that Jumbo-Visma were reluctant to allow the gap to drift out too far beyond that the two-minute mark.

After the race descended to Montreux and the shores of Lake Geneva, the pace began to ratchet upwards in the peloton, with Groupama-FDJ and Ineos both helping to reduce the break’s lead to 1:30 as they came through Aigle and approached the 10.5km climb towards the finish at Torgon.

Martinez went on the offensive almost as soon as the climb began, with only Gougeard able to match his pace, while Evenepoel et al were swept up by the peloton. Pellaud gamely chased alone for much of the climb and was eventually joined by his Swiss teammate Roland Thalmann and Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin), but this trio never succeeded in catching Martinez and Gougeard.

The rain fell ever more heavily as the road climbed in inexorably upwards. Back in the yellow jersey group, Ineos had taken over the pace-making, with Rosa riding strongly to whittle down their numbers. The Italian was still on the front when Martinez and Gougeard were caught with 5km to go before swinging over to allow Dylan van Baarle take up the reins.

The first real attack on Roglic’s jersey came when first Guillaume Martin and then David Gaudu accelerated with 3km to go, but neither man could force a gap before they reached the official summit of the climb with 2km remaining. The road continued to snake upwards, thereafter, however, and Roglic showcased his strength when he punched clear with Thomas. It wasn’t the day’s decisive attack, but it was a portent of what was to come.

Results

Intermediate sprint 1 - 59.3km

Intermediate sprint 2 - 91.5km

Finish sprint - 107.6km

Mountain 1 - Prevonloup - 27.1km

Mountain 2 - Torgon - 105.3km

Stage young rider classification

Stage team classification

General classification

Points classification

Mountain classification

Young rider classification

Team classification