Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE]

April 28, 2018

Tour de Romandie 2018 – Stage 4 – Sion – Sion : 149,2 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.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) took victory on the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie after attacking solo on the final descent. The Dane’s win is the second of the race for the Astana team, which took stage 1 with Omar Fraile.

Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) beat Egan Bernal (Team Sky) in the sprint for second place, some 47 seconds behind Fuglsang, to extend his lead over the Colombian in the general classification. Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Richie Porte (BMC Racing) followed them across the line to take fourth and fifth, respectively, with Porte giving away two seconds plus bonus seconds to Roglic and Bernal in the GC battle.

Fuglsang looked intent on securing himself his first win of the season, following an earlier attack by Costa on the final climb. The pair was eventually brought back when Bernal launched a flurry of attacks towards the top of the ascent, taking the race leader Roglic with them. Another attack by Bernal dropped all but Roglic, and the two leading contenders in the overall classification were the first to crest the Basse-Nendaz.

Costa and then Porte quickly bridged the gap at the start of the descent, but it took Fuglsang a little longer to make contact, using his notable descending skills to do the business. The Dane sat near the back of the group for much of the first part of the descent, biding his time to jump again as the road briefly headed upwards again with 15 kilometres remaining.

The road soon dipped down again and that is where Fuglsang did the most damage. He quickly extended his lead to almost 40 seconds, helped by a level of apathy from the riders behind. Costa appeared eager to bring Fuglsang back, but he was getting no help from the top three in the overall classification. Thanks to doing so much work in the chase, Costa was easily passed by Roglic and Bernal in the battle for bonus seconds, allowing Fuglsang to relieve him of his fourth place in the GC, having started the day 15th overall.

How it happened

It was another unusually sunny day at the Tour de Romandie as the riders sought out the shade while they waited for the start of the queen stage in Sion. After a tough mountain time trial, the organisers had mapped out a challenging route through the mountains for stage 4. Five climbs littered the route, with the first of them coming almost immediately after the start.

Attacks came right from the off, but LottoNL-Jumbo were cautious of letting anything go. Unsurprisingly, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) was among those that went away early on, taking Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott), Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondiale) with him. Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-Drapac) then bridged the gap to make it a five-man break.

LottoNL-Jumbo remained cautious, and the five leaders had only a slim advantage on the peloton behind. Frank and Kangert were eventually distanced with Andrey Amador (Movistar) and Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida) taking their place up front. The gap was never large and never breached the three-minute mark throughout the stage.

With the peloton fully in control behind, the main battle of the day was for the king of the mountains points. Carthy took the first three climbs but De Gendt followed him in for second on each occasion, and given that he started the day with 13 points to his name, he took the lead in the competition ahead of the Brit. De Gendt took the penultimate climb as well as both intermediate sprints to cement his position at the top of both competitions with one day remaining.

The first flurries of action from the peloton came on the penultimate climb, with Daniel Martinez (EF Education First-Drapac) and Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) going clear before Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) made it a trio. The gap to the leaders had fallen to just over a minute at that point and the three chasers quickly moved to within 30 seconds of the five up front. Pernsteinter soon sat up to lend his teammate a hand and they joined up with what was left of the original breakaway – De Gendt lost contact after the second intermediate sprint – soon after the start of the final climb.

The advantage over the peloton still held at a minute when the junction was made, but a surge in pace from Team Sky soon put paid to that. With three riders, and Bernal, still remaining, they took turns to burn riders out of the back. Castroviejo peeled off with just over 30 kilometres remaining, Bernal launched the first of his many attacks.

Bernal got rid of most of his GC rivals, including Porte, but could not shake Roglic, who appeared to be superglued to his rear wheel. The pair quickly brought back the remnants of the breakaway as the rest of the general classification riders scrambled to regain contact. Bernal continued to lay down punch after punch, but Roglic was more than capable of dealing with the accelerations.

The pair led over the top of the final climb, after bringing back Fuglsang and Costa, who had gone with 30 kilometres remaining. Costa, Porte and then Fuglsang made contact with the two leaders on the descent before Fuglsang made his move with 15 kilometres remaining. With the general classification riders concerned with each other rather than the Astana rider, he quickly built up a sufficient enough lead to take stage win. Roglic won the sprint for second to increase his overall lead to eight seconds ahead of Bernal.

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

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