Cunego prevails in Romont

Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) took victory in the hilltop town of Romont with a well-timed sprint that saw him finish two seconds clear of Cadel Evans (BMC) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana). Overnight leader Pavel Brutt (Katusha) retains the yellow jersey in spite of being dropped on the day’s main difficulty, Le Gibloux.

“The main objective was a stage win and that’s done,” Cunego said afterwards. “I’m grateful to the whole Lampre team, which fulfilled its role on an undulating course that was very hard to control and marked by a lot of attacks.”

Cunego’s Lampre-ISD team worked hard to chase down a dangerous break featuring David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo), Rui Costa (Movistar), Mikael Cherel (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and David Cioni (Sky) in the finale. With Millar and Costa putting up fierce resistance, however, the Italian was forced to pick off the remnants of the break in person after Evans had launched the sprint behind.

Evans’ initial burst was hugely impressive, but the unfortunate Australian was forced to slow when coming around the fading Cherel and never recovered his lost momentum. Cunego opted to take a different line around the Frenchman and was able to take full advantage of the confusion to rip clear of Evans and Vinokourov to take a resounding victory.

Costa managed to hold on for fourth place ahead of his Movistar teammates David Lopez and Beñat Intxausti, while Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) and Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC) were also keeping tabs on affairs.

Pavel Brutt lost contact with the leading group near the summit of Le Gibloux after Roman Kreuziger (Astana) put in a lengthy stint on the front. After instantly losing 45 seconds, the Russian succeeded in managing the deficit on the run-in to the finish to salvage his overall lead, 38 seconds clear of Cunego.

A fascinating battle for overall honours is now promised, with Evans and Vinokourov just a further four seconds back in third and fourth, respectively.

How it happened

With a punchy route in store, there was no shortage of attacks in the opening kilometres of the stage. However, with yesterday’s lengthy and successful break fresh in the mind, the peloton was loathe to let a significant group forge ahead, and the first part of the stage saw attack after attack closed down.

Among those to try their luck early on were Tom Stamsnijder (Leopard Trek) and Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-Sungard), while a large group that formed 33km in was quickly snuffed out due to the presence of Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Vladimir Karpets (Katusha).

Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) led over the first categorised climb of Esmonts (81.1km), before Christophe Kern (Europcar) and Maxime Bouet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) finally formed a break that gained some traction on the descent.

The French duo gained a maximum lead of three minutes after 120km, but that lead would gradually come down on the approach to Le Gibloux, as the rolling terrain began to take its toll. Indeed, the main peloton was whittled down ahead of the climb, with riders including Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Cervélo) deposited out the back.

On the climb itself, the leaders were reeled in, and immediately Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) and Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas-Cannondale) went clear. Impressive tempo riding from Roman Kreuziger (Astana) meant that they, too, were brought back before the summit, while race leader Brutt went backwards.

Once over the top, Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo) tried his luck, and shortly after he was caught the four-man group featuring Millar, Costa, Cioni and Cherel managed to forge clear. Thanks largely to the efforts of Millar, they were still clear at the foot of the 1km drag to the line, in spite of the Lampre-led pursuit behind.

Millar and Costa were clearly the strongest of the leading quartet, and for much of the way up to the line they threatened to hold off the elite group of chasers. However, Evans’ decision to launch the sprint behind at an early juncture would ultimately prove critical, setting up Cunego’s grandstand finish.