Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE]

April 26, 2018

Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 2 – Delémont – Yverdon-les-Bains : 173,9 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.

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) added to his portfolio of breakaway wins on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie, going clear in the opening kilometres with three others before dropping them all in turn to celebrate a solo victory in Yverdon-les-Bains.

Sonny Colbrelli, whose Bahrain-Merida teammates had led a panicked chase, took second place from the bunch, which came in just over two minutes down, while Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) finished third.

De Gendt, one of a dying breed of breakaway specialists, once again showed himself to be adroit in picking out the right days and moves. Thursday’s 174km trip from Delémont to Yverdon-les-Bains was, on paper, the only real chance for the sprinters at the Tour de Romandie, but an upset was on the cards when the Belgian went clear on the early climb of the Col des Rangiers with Nathan Brown (EF-Drapac), Andrey Grivko (Astana), and – crucially – his own teammate Victor Campenaerts.

As the roads undulated over the subsequent 80 kilometres, the gap back to the peloton yawned out to nearly eight minutes, and once up and over the second-category Col des Etroits – where Grivko was dislodged – they took to the undulating 35km finishing circuit with a lead of five minutes. For reference, De Gendt had predicted at the start of the day that two minutes might suffice at that point.

After burying himself for his teammate, Campenaerts was soon dropped, while De Gendt made use of the second of three uncategorised climbs to drop Brown with 25km remaining.

From there, with the gap still at well over four minutes, victory was pretty much a formality, though it remained to be seen if the leader’s jersey would change hands. De Gendt had started the day just over three minutes down on Primoz Roglic’s (LottoNL-Jumbo) overall lead and the GC teams committed riders to the cause in the latter stages, though the greater threat was probably Brown, who’d started the day just 26 seconds down. In the end, the American was caught in the final kilometre.

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

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