Tour de Romandie: Bevin wins stage 3 ahead of Hayter

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Patrick Bevin secured a key victory for Israel-Premier Tech on Friday in stage 3 of the Tour of Romandie as the New Zealander launched a devastatingly powerful late acceleration to win a small group sprint.

Bevin's faultless timed charge for the line left the recent Tour of Turkey winner well clear of stage favourite Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and race leader Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) in the first WorldTour victory for Israel-Premier Tech this season.

During the hilly 165 kilometre trek starting and finishing in Valbroye, Hayter's Ineos Grenadiers team had successfully re-applied their stage two strategy of whittling down the peloton, with two late third category climbs helping the British team wean out their rivals.

But when Bevin jumped away after a late right-hand corner, he seemingly caught Hayter on the back foot. His victory simultaneously propelled the 31-year-old into second overall, 14 seconds down on Dennis, now race leader for a third straight day.

"It's been a really long time since I've even sprinted, I got a bit pushed around yesterday in the big tailwind sprint and kind of dusted myself off today and thought I would give it a go," Bevin said afterwards.

 Bevin said his reasoning to himself for having a go at the sprint was that "It's going to be reduced, it's going to be tired legs and I'm going to be one of the fastest guys left." As for how it felt to take such an important victory, Bevin's reply was "While it was nice to win in Turkey, it's amazing to win here."

How it unfolded

With the week's warm, dry weather continuing for the hilliest stage of the 2022 Romandie so far, Ineos Grenadiers were once again determined to set things up for a possible third win in four days for Hayter.

A three-man move by Nans Peters (AG2R-Citroën), Krist Neilands (Israel Premier Tech) and French National Champion Remi Cavagna (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) was thus only given a scant four-minute margin of freedom before the British team began piling on the pressure behind.

The trio's lead quickly crumpled and on the first of late two third category ascents, the Dompierre, a brief attempt by Peters to go solo was quickly crushed. By the summit, just 70 riders remained in the front group.

Jumbo-Visma picked up the pace with Steven Kruijswijk doing a lot of the work on the final climb, the much steeper ascent of Sedeilles. Yet when Carlos Verona (Movistar) made the most determined attack, tellingly it was Ineos Grenadiers riders Luke Plapp and Andrey Amador who quickly marshalled the pursuit of the rider from Madrid.

An interesting-looking attack by local Swiss star Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) and Ben O'Connor (AG2R-Citróen) over the summit of Sédeilles was met with an even shorter shrift from Ineos Grenadiers. Equally, a powerful lone late surge away by Estonia's Rein Taaramae (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) was summarily crushed by Ineos' defending champion Geraint Thomas.

But having put in all the hard yards, a sharp right-hand bend in the last kilometre and Bevin's stunning late acceleration undid all Ineos' previous efforts in an instant and simultaneously netted the New Zealander his third win in less than a fortnight.

After the opening prologue and three hilly stages, Romandie now moves into the mountains with a vengeance on Saturday with a crunch stage including five first category climbs, running from Aigle to a near-summit finish at Zinal.