Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 1 [LAST 15 KM]

April 25, 2018

Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 1 – Fribourg – Delémont : 166,6 km

The 72nd edition of the Tour de Romandie has attracted an impressive field with defending champion Richie Porte lining up alongside a strong BMC Racing squad that includes Tejay van Garderen and Rohan Dennis. 



In a repeat of last year’s race, the Tour de Romandie begins with a short individual test against the clock. There are few opportunities for the sprinters, with the route heavily stacked towards the GC contenders and strong all-rounders. There may not be any true mountain summit finishes in the race but every stage, bar the time trials, has over 1,000m of climbing with the queen stage in Sion set to shape the fight for the leader’s jersey. The individual uphill time trial to Villars will be just as important.

Omar Fraile took Astana’s 14th victory of the 2018 season after he beat beat Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) on stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie. Fraile went long on the run-in to the line Delémont and held off the Italian with Rui Costa taking third.

Astana have enjoyed a strong start to the season and dominated last week’s Tour of the Alps. The Kazakh team looked determined to do something today and Dario Cataldo launched a brief attack near the top of the final climb with 11 kilometres remaining.

They had a second bite of the cherry after bringing back a number of late attackers in the final two kilometres with Fraile opting to kick out as they rounded the final corner. The Spaniard’s surge of pace caught Colbrelli by surprise, who might have assumed he was the fastest rider remaining in the dramatically reduced peloton, and he quickly nudged in front of the Bahrain-Merida rider.

Colbrelli did his utmost to overhaul Fraile, but the frenetic finish had taken its toll and he had to settle for second place. He fared better than race leader Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), who was distanced on the final climb, leaving Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) in perfect position to take control of the general classification. He is equal on time with Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) while Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) sits in third place at four seconds.

How it happened

After a short and technical prologue, the peloton settled into the racing proper with a 173.9-kilometre stage 1 from Fribourg to Delémont. Matthews was the rider in yellow on the start line after an impressive showing in the time trial to beat BMC Racing’s Tom Bohli by a second and the day two would be a chance for the Australian to take another win.

Before the racing got underway, there was a sombre moment as the riders paused for a minute’s silence for the late BMC Racing owner Andy Rihs. The Swiss businessman died last week at the age of 75 from leukaemia. His team, led by Richie Porte and Rohan Dennis at Romandie, wore black armbands in his honour.

The riders rolled out of Delémont just after 1pm local time with the flag dropping 15 minutes later, signalling the beginning of racing. A light headwind made advancement a tad harder but that didn’t deter the five riders that broke clear to form the day’s main escape. Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Remy Mertz (Lotto Soudal), Will Clarke (EF Education First-Drapac), Antoine Duchesne (Groupama-FDJ) and Marco Minnaard were the quintet that surged up the road and they quickly built a three-minute advantage over the bunch.

Matthews’ Sunweb teammates took up their responsibilities at the front of the peloton, allowing the breakaway to amass an advantage of just over six minutes as they entered the final circuits over the second category Le Sommet with 60 kilometres to go.

Confident that their sprinter is in good form, Sunweb set a damaging pace on the ascent, putting pre-stage favourites Elia Viviani and Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors), Michael Albasini (Mitchelton-Scott) in trouble. Matthews, however, was comfortably sat at the back of his team’s train. The efforts of the German-registered squad quickly cut down the advantage of the leaders and as they approached the second loop it stood at little more than three minutes.

The second running of Le Sommet sparked much more interest from other teams with UAE Team Emirates and LottoNL-Jumbo helping to push the pace on the front and take another minute from the five men out front. After a tough day out, Mertz was the first of the escapees to lose touch and others were quick to follow with Clarke and Duchesne taking the trap door exit in quick succession, leaving Gougeard and Minnaard the last men standing.

With Mertz no longer up front, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) jumped off the front with Mitchelton-Scott rider Lucas Hamilton and Pavel Sivakov (Team Sky). They were brought back into the fold but pace quickly whittled away the peloton from the other end. Having looked comfortable on the first time up Le Sommet, Matthews found himself out the back as Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) set the pace for Roglic.

As the gap was reduced to just 10 seconds with 11 kilometres to go, Astana sought to put the cat among the pigeons with a short-lived attack. No sooner had it been brought back together, Dan Martin launched a move up the left-hand side of the road and quickly bridged across to the leaders just over the top of the climb. The speed of the descent meant that Martin was unable to stay away long and several riders streamed past him on the long downhill run.

As the rest were swallowed up Gougeard escaped the clutches of the chasing peloton but with the road flattening out, he had just nine seconds on a determined pack behind. The Frenchman had been out all day and, in the end, he didn’t have the energy to go all the way to the line. Meanwhile, the fast descent allowed a number of dropped riders to regain contact with the bunch, which now consisted of around 50 riders.

A flurry of attacks followed but the win would come down to a reduced bunch sprint to the line. Colbrelli led the pack towards the final corner but Fraile put in an acceleration to move past the Italian. It was a slim advantage but it proved enough for Fraile to claim his second win of the season.

Results :
1 Omar Fraile (Spa) Astana Pro Team 4:03:42
2 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
3 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
4 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
5 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky
7 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
9 Merhawi Kudus (Eri) Dimension Data
10 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
11 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team
12 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team
13 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo
14 Jaime Roson (Spa) Movistar Team
15 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky
16 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin
17 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
18 Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky
19 Damien Howson (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
20 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
21 Thomas Degand (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
22 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Trek-Segafredo
23 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
24 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
25 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky
26 José Gonçalves (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
27 Daniel Martinez (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
28 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott
29 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates
30 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates
31 Marco Minnaard (Ned) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
32 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
33 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Movistar Team
34 Nathan Brown (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
35 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team
36 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
37 Carlos Verona (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott
38 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team
39 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
40 Carlos Betancur (Col) Movistar Team
41 Dayer Quintana (Col) Movistar Team
42 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
43 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
44 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
45 Joe Dombrowski (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
46 Nicola Conci (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
47 Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain-Merida
48 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team
49 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
50 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
51 Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
52 Rob Power (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
53 James Knox (GBr) Quick-Step Floors
54 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:17
55 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:30
56 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:14
57 Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
58 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky
59 Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Katusha-Alpecin
60 Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Eri) Dimension Data 0:01:35
61 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal
62 Antoine Duchesne (Can) Groupama-FDJ
63 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
64 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana Pro Team
65 Andrey Grivko (Ukr) Astana Pro Team
66 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal
67 Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Sky
68 Stef Clement (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
69 James Shaw (GBr) Lotto Soudal
70 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team
71 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:01:41
72 Anass Ait El Abdia (Mar) UAE Team Emirates 0:03:11
73 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal
74 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:04:38
75 Darwin Atapuma (Col) UAE Team Emirates 0:04:56
76 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:05:00
77 Léo Vincent (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:05:08
78 Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:05:09
79 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:05:14
80 Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Team Sunweb
81 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:06:03
82 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
83 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
84 Brendan Canty (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
85 Laurens ten Dam (Ned) Team Sunweb
86 Remy Mertz (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:07:09
87 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Groupama-FDJ 0:08:31
88 Kristijan Koren (Slo) Bahrain-Merida 0:09:34
89 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
90 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Trek-Segafredo
91 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
92 Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
93 Nicholas Dlamini (RSA) Dimension Data
94 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors
95 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin
96 Silvan Dillier (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
97 Michael Albasini (Swi) Mitchelton-Scott
98 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott
99 Baptiste Planckaert (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin
100 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team
101 Bram Tankink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
102 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky
103 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Bora-Hansgrohe
104 Davide Martinelli (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:14:07
105 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data
106 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors
107 Nicolas Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data 0:16:18
108 Christopher Hamilton (Aus) Team Sunweb
109 Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb
110 Matteo Bono (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
111 Enzo Wouters (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:18:03
112 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida
113 Nico Denz (Ger) AG2R La Mondiale
114 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
115 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
116 Lars Boom (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo
117 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
118 Andreas Schillinger (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
119 Robert Wagner (Ger) LottoNL-Jumbo
120 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo
121 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
122 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
123 Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
124 Floris De Tier (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
125 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) Dimension Data
126 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
127 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
128 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
129 Tom Stamsnijder (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:26:39
130 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data
131 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Groupama-FDJ
DNS José Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team

General Classification after Stage 1 :
1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 4:09:16
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:04
4 Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky 0:00:05
5 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
6 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:08
7 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky 0:00:10
8 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky
9 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
10 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:13
11 José Gonçalves (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
12 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:14
13 Daniel Martinez (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:15
14 Nicola Conci (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
15 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
16 Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:16
17 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
18 Rob Power (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:17
19 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:18
20 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team
21 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates
22 Omar Fraile (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:00:19
23 Damien Howson (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott
24 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
25 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin 0:00:20
26 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:21
27 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
28 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Movistar Team
29 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team 0:00:22
30 Joe Dombrowski (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
31 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert
32 Mathias Frank (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:23
33 Carlos Verona (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:24
34 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team
35 Carlos Betancur (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:25
36 Jaime Roson (Spa) Movistar Team
37 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:26
38 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
39 Nathan Brown (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale
40 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
41 James Knox (GBr) Quick-Step Floors
42 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
43 Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:00:28
44 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:29
45 Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain-Merida
46 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team
47 Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:30
48 Thomas Degand (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:00:31
49 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
50 Merhawi Kudus (Eri) Dimension Data
51 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:36
52 Dayer Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:40
53 Marco Minnaard (Ned) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:00:41
54 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:45
55 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:51
56 Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:34
57 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:39
58 Matteo Fabbro (Ita) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:41
59 David Lopez Garcia (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:43
60 Axel Domont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:44
61 Andrey Grivko (Ukr) Astana Pro Team 0:01:45
62 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:01:46
63 Pavel Sivakov (Rus) Team Sky 0:01:57
64 Stef Clement (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:58
65 Antoine Duchesne (Can) Groupama-FDJ
66 Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Eri) Dimension Data 0:01:59
67 Hugo Houle (Can) Astana Pro Team 0:02:03
68 Fabien Doubey (Fra) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:02:05
69 Sander Armee (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:02:06
70 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:02:08
71 James Shaw (GBr) Lotto Soudal 0:02:12
72 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:03:23
73 Anass Ait El Abdia (Mar) UAE Team Emirates 0:03:50
74 Kilian Frankiny (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:05:12
75 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:05:13
76 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:05:21
77 Louis Vervaeke (Bel) Team Sunweb 0:05:28
78 Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:05:30
79 Darwin Atapuma (Col) UAE Team Emirates 0:05:36
80 Léo Vincent (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:05:41
81 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:06:26
82 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team
83 Brendan Canty (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:06:28
84 Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:06:30
85 Laurens ten Dam (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:06:37
86 Remy Mertz (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:07:43
87 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Groupama-FDJ 0:08:48
88 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:09:34
89 Silvan Dillier (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale 0:09:47
90 Alex Dowsett (GBr) Katusha-Alpecin 0:09:50
91 Michael Mørkøv (Den) Quick-Step Floors 0:09:55
92 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:09:59
93 Michael Albasini (Swi) Mitchelton-Scott 0:10:00
94 Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 0:10:02
95 Kristijan Koren (Slo) Bahrain-Merida 0:10:04
96 Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:10:05
97 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:10:06
98 Baptiste Planckaert (Bel) Katusha-Alpecin 0:10:07
99 Fumiyuki Beppu (Jpn) Trek-Segafredo 0:10:08
100 Bram Tankink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:10:13
101 Svein Tuft (Can) Mitchelton-Scott 0:10:18
102 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:10:20
103 Nicholas Dlamini (RSA) Dimension Data 0:10:22
104 Davide Martinelli (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:14:20
105 Jaco Venter (RSA) Dimension Data 0:14:41
106 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors 0:14:54
107 Christopher Hamilton (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:16:55
108 Michael Storer (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:16:59
109 Nicolas Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data 0:17:04
110 Matteo Bono (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:17:12
111 Odd Christian Eiking (Nor) Wanty-Groupe Gobert 0:18:25
112 Nico Denz (Ger) AG2R La Mondiale 0:18:27
113 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:18:29
114 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:18:31
115 Lars Boom (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:18:34
116 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Bahrain-Merida 0:18:35
117 Andreas Schillinger (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:18:36
118 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
119 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:18:38
120 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:18:41
121 Johann Van Zyl (RSA) Dimension Data 0:18:44
122 Floris De Tier (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo
123 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:18:47
124 Boy van Poppel (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:18:49
125 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:18:57
126 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
127 Enzo Wouters (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:18:59
128 Robert Wagner (Ger) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:19:02
129 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data 0:26:57
130 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Groupama-FDJ 0:27:23
131 Tom Stamsnijder (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:27:25