Tour de Romandie Stage 1 Report


Favourites: Martin, Wiggins, Boasson Hagen, Millar, Cavendish

Oddly, Bradley Wiggins was one of the first riders off the start ramp, and he set a commanding time of 4'48. That was going to be very hard to beat and the former British time trial champion could now relax.


Another ex-British TT champ, Millar was the first rider to challenge Wiggo, going round the course one second slower than the Sky rider.


Italian champion, Malori of Lampre stunned everyone with a time of 4'47 to go one second quicker than Wiggins. I don't think anybody expected that at the start of the day, but the Italian is obviously in good shape.


But the Brits weren't off the top for long as the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish showed his pedigree over the short time trials and beat Malori by one second.


Peter Velits had a good run, going as fast as he possibly could, but his lack of form meant he could only finish the day in 32nd, 9 seconds down. Definitely still in touch.


The time trialling monster that is Tony Martin was out there aswell and despite being the pre race favourite, he could only do the same time as Wiggins in third place.


The final rider on the course was Norwegian TT champ, Boasson Hagen. The in-team battle between him and Cav was already starting, but Edvald got nowhere near, being four seconds slower. Superb win for the World Champion today.

Stage Winner

Tour de Romandie Stage 2 Report


Favourites: Cunego, Horner, Albasini, Nieve, Kloden

The early break consisted of six riders, with Konig getting into it. The biggest riders alongside the Czech climber were Steegmans, Vermeltfoort and Agnoli.


As the climbing began, another eleven riders rode across to the front group. There were two FDJ riders including Fedrigo as well as Di Luca and Fischer.


This group then split again, with six riders going on the attack. Konig was one of those six that went over the first climb first. Zingle (Cofidis) won the mountain sprint with Konig third.


However, not long after this summit, all 17 riders were back in the peloton. After a while, Van der Sande (Lotto) and Ferrari (Androni) went away, but neither of them were really good enough to stand a chance.


Approaching the intermediate sprint before the final climb, one more rider was ahead of the peloton. Bram Tankink of Rabobank had given it a go, but it was over before the final ascent.


On to the final climb and, while Lampre were setting the pace for Cunego, on the other side of the road, Kiserlovski was bringing Velits to the front. Bole was just behind this and feeling extremely good. Now we were waiting for the attacks.


There were numerous attacks, including Velits, Cunego and Horner, but only two riders got away, Albasini (GreenEdge) and Nieve (Euskaltel). These two were riding shoulder to shoulder to the finish.


And it was the Swiss rider who took the win on home soil ahead of Nieve. Great win for GreenEdge. The sprint for third behind was won by Cunego, who gained 11 seconds on the rest of the bunch, headed by Horner and Menchov.


Our highest placed finisher, meanwhile, was Bole, who sprinted to a fantastic 11th, ahead of Lastras, Brutt and Vandevelde. Peter Velits came home 22nd just behind Haussler, but ahead of Florencio. They both got the same time as Horner.

Stage Winner

Tour de Romandie Stage 3 Report


Favourites: Cunego, Horner, Albasini, Sagan, Kloden

The original breakaway contained six riders, with Szmyd in it. This was fine by the peloton, who let it go, but eleven more riders bridging the gap ended the break.


However, Szmyd wasn't finished and stayed ahead of the peloton. Unfortunately, only one rider, Felline (Androni) was with him, which didn't give them much chance of succeeding.


After a while, they were joined by the outrageously strong van Avermaet of BMC, who set such a high pace that Szmyd and Felline could do nothing but hang on. In the background, Costa rides across to the front group.


As you would expect, as soon as Costa made it to the front group, he and van Avermaet left the other two behind. Szmyd sat up and waited for the peloton to help his leaders. The front two had four minutes on the peloton at this point.


On to the final climb and Costa and van Avermaet were soon joined by Albasini, Cunego and Horner, the three best riders here. Behind, there were lots of attacks, including Bole who made it away from the peloton in a group with Kloden.


Through the final sprint of the day Cunego and Albasini had left the others behind and would fight for the stage win. Unfortunately, Bole's group had been caught by the peloton, so our focus switched to Velits.


But Albasini couldn't make it 2 out of 2, as Cunego took the victory. A group of four just behind was surprisingly headed by Cummings ahead of Chris Horner.


Velits sprinted to 13th just behind Sagan and Boasson Hagen and gets the same time as Minard in seventh. Bole finished 20th. Velits manages to maintain 17th overall.

Stage Winner

Tour de Romandie Stage 4 Report


Favourites: Cavendish, Greipel, Farrar, Petacchi, Rojas

Today's BotD formed very quickly and contained seven riders. They were Grivko, Vermeltfoort, Tosatto, M.Bodnar, Zingle, Rollin and Nepomnyachshiy. They built up a lead of 11:00 by the halfway point of the stage.


As we predicted, none of the favourites were interested in racing today and GreenEdge were the only team on the front because Grivko was in the race lead as it stood. They brought it down to 8:00 by the top of the long climb.


As the breakaway went over the final climb, Bodnar was way out the back and Grivko was really struggling. His fitness isn't quite at a level where he can challenge yet. It looked like the other five would fight for victory.


And indeed, as soon as the sprint started, Grivko had to let the wheels go and cruise in to sixth place. Zingle was leading the sprint out but Rollin, Vermeltfoort and Tosatto were in better positions.


The Rabobank rider, Vermeltfoort, took the win from Tosatto. Rollin completed the podium, while Grivko finished sixth, 54 seconds down. The peloton came home four minutes later, with Cavendish leading Breschel and Freire. Bole came a solid 12th.

Stage Winner

Tour de Romandie Stage 5 Report


Favourites: Martin, Wiggins, Kloden, Menchov, Boasson Hagen

The first good time was set by Alex Rasmussen of Garmin, who, despite his complete lack of climbing ability, he set the fastest time, 28 seconds quicker than early leader, Kohler (BMC).


Just like the prologue, Malori went quickest, a whopping 17 seconds quicker than Rasmussen.


World champ Tony Martin was obviously the favourite for the stage, but he clearly hasn't been in great shape this week. Despite this, Tony went 46 seconds quicker than Malori!


Former World TT champion Michael Rogers lost a lot of time and was hoping to make up for it today. He did a very good job, going just 5 seconds down on Martin in second.


Peter Velits was having a great day and after setting the fastest time at the intermediate check, he did the same time as Rogers in second place. It looked very good for Peter.


Veteran Andreas Kloden of Radioshack then laid some serious smackdown on his opponents, beating Martin by 20 whole seconds. A stunning time by the German, who was never gonna get beaten with that.


Brad Wiggins should have been right up there today, but for whatever reason, he wasn't comfortable out there and could only go 14th, 42 seconds down on Kloden.


Another old-timer, Menchov was looking impressive, and finished third ten seconds down.


Damiano Cunego is certainly not an expert in this discipline, but the course suited him with lots of climbing. Amazingly, he was the closest to Kloden today, 9 seconds down.


Albasini was enjoying his final kilometre in the yellow jersey as Cunego would be in that tomorrow. He finished joint 16th, 51 seconds down. This meant that Peter Velits finished the day in a great sixth place.