Today's mountain stage from Yverdon-les-Bains to La Chaux-de-Fonds is a real monster with five Cat2 and one Cat1 climb along the way. A fast downhill finish as an interesting conclusion to a heavy climbing day. Definitely a day, where you can lose (or win) this Tour de Romandie.
Sicard as the obvious favorite, who's also got the pressure to defend his narrow GC lead over Kwiatkowski and Roche. The latter two did, what they were supposed to do, when they gained valuable time in yesterday's hilly stage. And today, it's a stage, where they have to limit the losses against some stronger climbers. A few of those lost big minutes yesterday, like Henao Montoya in particular. Will they bounce back today?
And interesting first climb, where a 9-men-group broke clear from the pack early. Some big names, who lost minutes yesterday, trying their luck with an early breakaway attempt. And also the fight for the KoM lead could be interesting:
Three pretty outstanding climbers for an early breakaway attempt! They are allowed to go clear, which should make things interesting today.
As for the KoM battle, it's bad news for Thill already on this first heavy climb, as he couldn't hang on and got dropped quickly.
Instead of him, it's
Maillet (KoM's 2nd, 27pts)
joining the leading group on the first descent! This 9-men-break leads by 1'50" on the pack with now 130km remaining..
Maillet would go 2nd at the next Cat2 climb (behind Sinelobov) and 1st at the third Cat2 climb (ahead of Sinelobov). And that's already the provisional lead in the KoM rankings:
KoM: Maillet 45, Thill 28, Rosa 25
A very tough race today and the breakaway goes into pieces with still 67km to go and two premium climbers setting a brutal pace to drop all their breakaway companions on the climb up Chaumont (9km, 7.4%):
Marquez Schelling
dropping Contador to build the new leading group!
Maillet also dropped, but adding further points towards the KoM ranking at the mountain top then. The French with a huge fight then, and he somehow manages to make it back to the leading duo about 51km before finish! Contador though still a minute in arrears and the other early attackers further behind.
40km remaining, we're entering today's Cat1 climb "Chasseral" (15km, 7%)! The new leading trio Marquez/Maillet/Schelling now two minutes ahead of Contador and four minutes ahead of the peloton, that has been reduced to 33 riders in the meantime.
try to go clear! The duo opens up a gap quickly, but we may expect a wave of attacks following on all those dangerous moves so far..
Indeed, here go the next big GC guns, as Talansky/Barguil established a bigger gap quickly:
Sicard Kwiatkowski
and a few seconds behind
Roglic Nazaret Brajkovic Van den Broeck
make their moves with still 39.5km to go! The peloton goes into pieces as soon as the GC contenders made their moves and there's a few names, that yet have to do something: Henao Montoya, Potocki, Duarte and also Roche stuck in a bigger group about a minute behind Sicard/Kwiatkowski!
Back to the very front, where Marquez got rid off Schelling (already 1.32 behind) and Maillet (49 seconds) in the meantime. Still on the Cat1 climb and 37km to the finish!
Talansky/Barguil now 3 minutes behind, as they went past the remaining early escapees.
Sicard now 4 minutes behind the solo leader and he accelerates again!
Behind him, a group with some more GC contenders:
Kwiatkowski Contador (from the early break) Sinelobov (from the early break) Brajkovic Van den Broeck Roglic Nazaret Chiarello Henao Montoya Elissonde Fernandez (from the early break)
So Henao Montoya caught up to group Brajkovic now!
Most notable names struggling: Roche, Duarte, Potocki and Kebede!
On the descent, the situation is as follows: Marquez with an impressive lead, Talansky/Barguil still 3 minutes behind. Sicard with a nice gap on the chasing group with Roglic, Kwiatkowski and Brajkovic, while Contador can't follow.
Also Elissonde got dropped and already 4 minutes behind group Kwiatkwoski/Roglic, there's a group with Kebede as the biggest name.
A group with Roche, Duarte, Potocki and Sanchez Gil further 2 minute behind Kebede!
And group Kwiatkowski/Roglic/Brajkovic/Van den Broeck is chasing hard to pull Sicard back. The descent surely would help them to do so, but it won't be easy..
13km to go, the last climb today: Vue des Alpes, 8km, 6.5%.
Barguil now extraordinary strong! He got rid off Talansky and Schelling and goes past Maillet easily. He's now just a minute behind Marquez and still more than two minutes ahead of Sicard!
Speaking of the GC leader: Sicard struggles to keep the gap to the chasing group and he's now accompanied by Roglic, who bridged across this 20" gap with 12km to go!
And also the other GC favorites made it back to Sicard, as they build a 6-men-group with now less than 10km to go and only the downhill finish ahead:
Sicard, Roglic, Van den Broeck, Henao Montoya, Brajkovic and Kwiatkowski in the same group, still more than 4 minutes behind solo leader Marquez! We will surely see some GC changes today.
Nazaret/Chiarello a few seconds behind group Sicard now.
Barguil solo chasing Marquez, but he enters the finishing stretch in La Chaux-de-Fonds with still a minute disadvantage..
..and so Marquez takes the queen stage thanks to an impressive solo ride! This early breakaway group today always looked dangerous and after yesterday's losses, this has been a huge day for Marquez thanks to his smart tactics and strong legs today. He will definitely move up the GC significally.
+ 1'27" Barguil, who did well with his attack and dropping Talansky later on. Just like Marquez, there's definitely a nice jump in the GC ahead for him today.
+ 3'29" for Maillet and Talansky, Schelling
The new KoM leader Maillet with a great stage today, especially since he got dropped and fought back to finish way ahead of Contador and all those other early escapees. Also Talansky and Schelling with some very good results. Schelling lost big time yesterday and Talansky will fancy his chances to finish higher in the GC now.
+ 4'32" for Roglic, who leads group Sicard over the line
A notable loss for Sicard on some dangerous GC contenders, but given his advantage on those guys prior to the stage, this should have been just enough to defend yellow. Barguil's big result could make things interesting though.
Amongst the big losers of the stage are GC's 8th Kebede, who eventually finishes as 28th on the stage with 9'49" lost on Marquez.
A tough day for Potocki, Duarte and particularly Roche, as they finish in a group that crosses the line 11'32" behind Marquez. That will make them drop some spots in the GC for sure.
Several names DNF the stage, see the list below.
So, now for the new GC prior to the concluding ITT tomorrow:
Sicard indeed defending his 2 second lead on Kwiatkowski, while the big winner in the GC is Barguil, as he moves up to 3rd with now just 26 seconds behind Sicard! This has been pretty close for Sicard eventually.
Brajkovic and Van den Broeck did well to keep their Top-5s, while Marquez is the next big winner (obivously), moving up to 6th ahead of an also strong Talansky, Roglic, Chiarello and Maillet. The latter with a huge day, as he also secured himself the KoM shirt here. Teammate Henao Montayo at least improving to 11th, Schelling to 12th and Roche dropped to 13th in the GC today.
Kebede 16th, Potocki 17th (but still leading the U25 competition), Nazaret 21st and Duarte a disappointing 28th ahead of Contador, who couldn't benefit from the early break like Marquez did.
A tight battle in the points competition, where Kwiatkowski moves up to a shared lead with Matthews (33pts), narrowly ahead of Roglic, Maillet and Silvestre (32pts each).
Tomorrow's timetrial should be a thriller with Sicard and Kwiatkowski just seperated by 2 seconds! Stay tuned.
