Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 3 [FULL STAGE – Individual Time Trial]

April 27, 2018

Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 3 – Ollon – Villars : 9,9 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.

Egan Bernal (Team Sky) won stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie after he mastered the mountain time trial at Villars, while Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) produced a storming performance in the final kilometres to place second on the stage and retain the yellow jersey of overall leader.

Roglic recouped ground in the finale to limit his losses on Bernal to 4 seconds, and thus carries a lead of 6 seconds over the Colombian into the final two days of racing, while Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) now lies third overall, 27 seconds down.

Friday’s 9.9km test was a difficult one to gauge, but Bernal seemed to pace his ride perfectly on the road from Ollon. Porte had the quickest time at the 4.5km mark, and when Bernal came through the same point some 9 seconds down, it looked as though the Australian was set for the stage victory.

Bernal took flight on the upper slopes, however, and he would recoup considerable ground by the summit. He rose repeatedly from the saddle in the closing kilometres and hit the finish line some 18 seconds quicker than Porte to depose the Australian from the hot seat. Bernal explained afterwards that he had raced according to his power-meter, and was not influenced by the time checks he heard out on the course.

“My coach told me you need to do your own numbers. It doesn’t matter about the times of any other riders,” Bernal said. “I just tried to do my numbers and I won, and I am so happy for that.”

Even with six riders left to finish, it was already clear that only Roglic could deny Bernal the stage win. The race leader reached the checkpoint some 18 seconds behind Porte and nine behind Bernal, but he dosed his effort well over the closing kilometres. Although he was unable to prevent Bernal from winning the stage, Roglic did enough to retain his yellow jersey and maintain his hopes of final overall victory.

The GC battle at this Tour de Romandie now appears to have been reduced to a three-way tussle between Roglic and the only two riders within a minute of him, Bernal and Porte. While most riders opted for the lightest possible road bike, Porte added a pair of tri bars to his machine and spent much of the race seated in an aerodynamic tuck. It helped to carry him to the best time at the midway point, but he had to give best to the flying Bernal over the closing kilometres.

Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) rode strongly to take 4th on the stage, 48 seconds down on Bernal, though even after setting the provisional best time, he was mindful of the quality of riders still to follow. “It’s hard to pace an uphill TT because you have to have something left for the finish,” Kruijswijk said. “My time is quite good but there’s still a lot of good riders coming.”

Despite the quality of riders that followed, Kruijswijk’s time proved a tough out, and he moves up to 4th place overall, 1:02 behind his teammate Roglic, putting LottoNL-Jumbo in a solid position ahead of the final weekend.

Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) produced a consistent ride to take fifth on the stage, 1:06 behind Bernal, and the former world champion occupies the same position in the general classification.

Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) quietly underlined his pre-Giro form with seventh place on a time trial course ill-suited to his characteristics, and the final weekend of racing should provide some interesting indications ahead of the corsa rosa.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) had a short stint in the hot seat earlier in the afternoon after producing a very rapid finish to his time trial effort, and though he slipped to eighth by day’s end, it might augur well for what is still to come in this race.

It was a rather more trying afternoon for Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), who never found his rhythm on the short but explosive test, and the Welshman lost all hope of overall victory as he came home some 2:33 behind his teammate Bernal.

The time gaps on the short test proved rather more substantial than one might have anticipated. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), for instance, looked relatively pleased when he crossed the line with the provisional best time early in the afternoon, but he ended the day in 13th place, 1:48 down on Bernal and seemingly out of the hunt for the yellow jersey.

Saturday’s stage 4 will provide a robust test of Roglic’s hold on the garment, as the Tour de Romandie peloton faces no fewer than five mountain passes on a leg that starts and finishes in Sion. The summit of the category 1 Les Collons comes 27km from the line, before the rapid drop to the finish in Sion.

“Tomorrow is a very hard stage,” Bernal said. “For sure we will try, but it will be a little difficult.”

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

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