Tour de Romandie
Stage 4
166.6km
Marly - Col de la Croix
The favorites list puts Oomen as the best shot for today, but he has a bit of ground to make up. Meintjes is nearby and with good downhill as well to recover those major descents. The battle for who has to pace will likely cause the difference today. Many, many KOM points on offer today.
If the sprinters’ teams were especially smart today, they wouldn’t allow an early break and try to contest the first sprint point. A fast start might keep their teammates inside the limit today as well. We shall see what they decide.
A tough uphill start does make it a bit more challenging for the breakaway, but a group of ten is secure off the front, while counter attacks are matched by Verona who paces for Bralirwa-Stevens. Those extra attacks can’t make the gap, but the ten original are away. They are: Vauquelin, Doubey, Tracz, McCutcheon, Smith, Abdurrahman, Roson, Pavlic, Elosegui, and Schir.
After a long attempt to keep them in the peloton, a second group has also escaped with plans to join the full break. They are: Munoz, Shalunov, Frankiny, Pedrero, Knox, Schachmann, and Urcelay.
The first sprint point comes with 133km to go and the front ten are still slightly ahead of the following 7. Doubey and Vauquelin show the most interest and go 1-2. Smith contests for 3rd. Shortly after, all 17 riders are together and have a gap on the peloton of 2:00 over the peloton. They approach the first climb of the day - 2nd Category Col des Mosse.
Immediately upon starting the climb, Knox drops off the back by choice it appears. Shalunov is close after, while Munoz seems spent from the chase and is also out the back of the front group.
Frankiny is next to be distanced. Pedrero falls off the past next. Clearly that long chase took an enormous amount of energy for the 2nd seven to join. The pace slows and Pedrero reconnects.
Doubey is the first across the Col des Mosse and takes the lead from Vauquelin who tried valiantly but couldn’t score. Schir 2nd, Roson 3rd, Pavlic 4th, and Elosogui 5th, but still lots of points on offer today.
Back in the peloton, Verona is the only rider off the back after pacing the long flat before the first climb. A long day for him.
Silvestre leads the Bralirwa train to catch the breakaway riders who have been dropped. 13 still sit up front with a 1:52 advantage.
The riders now attempt the Col de la Croix for the first time, climbing from the opposite side as the finish. They’ll get to test the final climb as their upcoming descent. Pedrero is dropped. Sony Force - India takes over the pace setting in the peloton.
Vauquelin is dropped from the break with 4km to go on the climb. That’s probably too long to return. Even so, getting dropped on the next climb would be likely. He fought valiantly for the jersey. Ahead, Doubey, Schachmann and Tracz also slide off the rest of the leaders.
Pavlic is also distanced.
5 riders fight for the top points on Col de La Croix. Abdurrahman takes the 16 points, McCutcheon 2nd, Urcelay 3rd, Smith 4th, and Roson 5th. All seem pooped at the top. Behind, Elosegui and Schir pick up 6th-7th. Pavlic alone takes 8th and the final points.
The second intermediate sprint sits between the two climbs and the 5 leaders still hold a gap there over Elosegui and Schir. Breakaway riders stay split between the leaders and the peloton. No fight for the sprint points or seconds. Urcelay, Roson, and Abdurrahman come through in order. They have 3:01 over the peloton of 109 riders. Next up is the Col de Morgins, also a Cat 1 climb. 59km to go after the sprint. Elosegui and Schir make contact right before the road goes uphill.
The peloton is maintaining a tough but steady pace behind the Sony Force - India and Bralirwa -Stevens mixed train. Now 130 riders together, but we assume that will diminish quickly. 50km to go and the gap to the breakaway is 2:45.
Elosegui is dropped 3km from the top. Schir is dropped 2k from the top.
The fight for the KOM points is destroying the breakaway. Smith drops everyone in the last 500m, but they should come back together. Abdurrahman takes 2nd ahead of Roson while Urcelay is next on the road for 4th. McCutcheon, Schir and Elosegui all manage to find the line before the peloton.
The peloton sits 3:40 back from the leaders with Sony Force - India in clear control for Choi. 83 riders cross there together.
4 riders will start the final climb together while the remaining former breakaway members sit in no man’s land, waiting to be swallowed by the peloton. Roson, Smith, Abdurrahman and Urcelay are those left with a fighting chance, although the Col de la Croix is an 19km climb.
At this point, the only GC rider not in the front peloton group is Izagirre, who was split right on the top of the last climb.
The 4 leaders have 2:00 on the peloton while Elosegui has already been taken into the group. Schir and McCutcheon are soon to be next. With 17km to go, this one is surely going to the peloton.
The peloton is all back together as the breakaway opts not to fight for every inch. 15km left and there are 76 left in the peloton. It seems like 5 depart off the back every 200m. The best climber out the back is Munoz who must still be suffering some from his early break attempt. Ahmad Zamri takes the pace. Rohendi also joins those pacing as he alternates with the Malaysian.
Only 39 left up front. Recently dropped is all of Tafjord Kraft, Frankiny, and Natarov. Bol and Bissegger also made it this far but are now behind.
Under the 10km banner, Yates begins pushing the pace and then attacks. He’s 1:19 down on GC so he knows that he has to attack from far. He’s given 16 seconds but the remaining GC favorites who appear to let him go.
That is until Oomen decides Yates is too big a threat to get distance. He brings Meintjes across, who is struggling to hold that pace. Those 3 have 0:30 on the 23 man chasing group with 8km to go. Those 23 are: Choi, Bennett, Stussi, Carboni, Schelling, Ranaweera, Jorgenson, Powless, Min, Fouche, Kozhatayev, Guldhammer, Sicard, Tejada, Ludvigsson, Misbah, Penasa, Primozic, Goos, Lasinis, Smith, Darbellay, and Lopez.
The three leaders are being pulled back in slowly as they only have 6km left. Meintjes now strong enough to take some turns again. The chase is down to 10 - Min, Jorgenson, Penasa, Sicard, Ranaweera, Powless, Schelling, Stussi, Bennett, and Choi.
11 upfront all together now with 4.5km to go. Min and Sicard can’t hold on, but the three leaders are brought back into the fold. A lot of looking around at who will make the first move.
The person willing to attack is Oomen who strings out the group one behind the other. Bennett seems most likely to cover with 2.5km to go. 2km to go and Oomen has found 20 seconds though. Jorgenson the only one dropped from the other 10.
Yates pulls the front for most of the next kilometer to bring Oomen back officially into the group before reaching the kite. Ranaweera does the final pull. Meintjes looks to really be struggling now, but officially he’s still in the group, as are Powless and Schelling.
Oomen is the first to go again in the fight for the finish. He leads by a bike with 600m to go. Ranaweera the best of the rest while Choi still looks to have some fight, along with Yates and Penasa.
The final turn before the line sees those 5 gain a major gap over the remaining challengers. Oomen is faltering, while Yates is coming with speed. His attack is also boxing in Choi for the time being. Penasa may box him in too as he looks to be aiming for a podium.
Yates is too strong for anyone else to contest! Another win for Indosat Ooredoo! Oomen holds on for 2nd while Ranaweera takes 3rd. Choi and Penasa round out the top 5.
Bennett takes 6th in an unofficial 38 seconds behind. Again, we will await the official time keepers before making any decision there. Stussi 7th, Meintjes losing GC lead in 8th. Schelling and Powless round out the top 10. The remaining top 15 slots are picked up in the basic order that they were dropped from the main group: Jorgenson, Sicard, Min, Carboni, and Guldhammer. Gaps are substantial.
All riders make the time limit by more than 15 min.
Yates takes the stage win! It’ll be a big jump up in GC for him as well.
Another new GC leader! Oomen by just 1 second over Choi!
Lots of points were on offer today and the jersey goes to… Doubey who builds on his total from yesterday.
The points jersey will remain on Bennett who picked up some today as well.
Tour de Romandie
