Here it is, the queen stage of the race. After 3 great climbs the riders will reach the end of the stage in La Punt. Even though we will have to wait until the last stage to know who is the winner of this year's Tour de Romandie will be for sure, this stage will give us a clear idea of who has a real shot at winning the General Classification.
And with such a great stage in front of us, there's a real chance to see all the distinctive jerseys changing their wearers at the end of the stage.
Visconti had enjoyed several days already in the yellow jersey after an amazing ride in the second stage, but the Italian is clearly not a great climber when it comes to high mountains and he will have to give the jersey to someone else.
Summerhill and Zaballa are definitely not strong enough to take it, but Phinney is there waiting to get the jersey back, the American being also a big favorite to take the stage win as well.
With 3 big climbs on the route it is clear that the stage is one for the real climbers. And we have plenty of great climbers riding here, the top 5 including Rujano, Uran, Phinney, Kashechkin and Pluchkin. And even though the last one crashed and lost time in one of the previous stages and maybe even got some injuries as well it would be a huge surprise not to see any of those 5 winning the stage.
The stage had a rather calm start but with the first summit of the day getting closer and closer the attacks started. A group of 10 riders first got away but they were all brought back.
Finally 10 kilometers before the top of the climb, four riders, all of them climbers put enough time between them and the pack: Duran, Vasquez, Rolland and Bellotti
At the top, only Rolland seemed interested in the KoM points and he attacked the other 3 riders for them. After 2 bad timed punctures in the previous stages the KoM jersey and a maybe a stage win was all that was left for the Auber rider
Deignan and Pires were riding somewhere between the leading group and the pack. The pink jersey wearer was sixth at the summit, while Ardila seventh. At that point Pires, Rolland and Ardila were the main riders to bet on in the battle for the KoM jersey
On the next climb, Rolland again went for the points. But Pires also got a few for himself as well. This climb though, put Ardila out of the equation for the pink jersey
With four climbers in the main breakaway group it was clear that none of them is interested in the intermediate sprints. And the first one went to Vasquez
On the third climb, Rolland made his move once again and those were probably his last points from today's stage
Pires managed to grab 5 points in what was 'the last climb for the escapes' and those 5 points were the difference between Rolland and a day in the pink jersey
Even though Vasquez didn't look interested in the intermediate sprints, he took the second and the last one of the day as well
After that sprint the big things started and we had some important moves in the pack, were Kashechkin and Van Huffel decided to make an early move
20 kilometers before the finish the four escapes were still in the lead. They were followed at 1 minute and a half by Kashechkin and Van Huffel and then at 2'10 by the pack, where we also had Deignan and Pires
As soon as the first real slopes of the last climb were reached, our 'sprinter' Vasquez attacked the other 3 escapes and since he got no response at all he took the race on his own
15 kilometers before the finish, Visconti was dropped off from the pack and even though half of the Starbucks squad was there to support him, things weren't looking too good for the yellow jersey wearer
Meanwhile, Kashechkin and Van Huffel had reached the chasing group. But that wasn't enough for Kash, who left the others behind and went for Vasquez as well
At the 10 kilometers banner, Kashechkin was leading the race all by himself, after dropping Vasquez easily in only a few meters
Vasquez was still in the second position, but Van Huffel's group was gone and the La Gazzetta rider was now followed by the pack, surprisingly led by by Kashechkin's team - mate, Tom Danielson
In the pack no one really want to work to catch Kashechkin and the Lipton rider reached the final 5 kilometers of the stage with an advantage of more than one minute
Behind him, Phinney was feeling that he was losing a great chance to get the yellow jersey back and he was trying to break the chasing group apart, but Danielson was always there to respond to anyone's attacks
In the final kilometers Kash started getting tired and lost some of his advantage but at the 1 kilometer banner he still had enough left in front of his chasers, led now by Rujano, to ensure the stage win
At the finish, Kashechkin knew he had two reasons to celebrate: the stage victory and the yellow jersey!
Uran beat Rujano in the sprint for the second place, as they both finished 36 seconds behind Kashechkin
Phinney lost 50 seconds on the road today and the chance to get back the yellow jersey. He was fourth in the stage though, followed by Duarte and Brajkovic at 58 seconds
Castano and Devolder came at 1'04, Amador and Perez Sanchez at 1'12, with Keizer and Hacecky missing out the top 10 of the stage after finishing at 1'36 behind Kashechkin, while Visconti lost more than 10 minutes today
We have now our third yellow jersey wearer, after Phinney and Visconti. And even though he missed the chance of getting back the yellow jersey, Phinney is now leading the points and U25 classifications, while Pires held on to his KoM jersey
