Saturday’s penultimate stage of the Tour de Romandie was also its queen stage, and to no one’s surprise, Tadej Pogačar took a hat trick of stage victories. The world champion reinforced his race lead. In coming 22nd, Canada’s Michael Leonard moved up one spot on GC to 18th.
Preliminaries
Tadej Pogačar led Florian Lipowitz by 17 seconds and Lenny Martinez by 26 seconds. If things kicked off early, Martinez had a chance at taking the KOM jersey from Roland Thalmann. Could Michael Leonard stay in the top 20?
The Course
There might not have been a summit finish, but Saturday was by all rights the queen stage, with three ascents of the Jaunpass, one from the Cat. 2 side and twice from the Cat. 1 side. The peak of the last once was 18 km from the finish line in Charmey.
Leonard and Thalmann got away in a compact, high-powered breakaway also containing Primož Roglič and Valentin Paret-Peintre. Thalmann reinforced his KOM lead on the first two passages of Jaunpass.
Cat. 2 Saanenmöser Pass saw Leonard’s breakaway lose some numbers and UAE-Emirates whipping up the pace in the peloton. On the final climb of Jaunpass, accelerated. Only Paret-Peintre could maintain. When the peloton could see the breakaway, Pogačar attacked. At first Lipowitz could hang on, but not until the crest. Lipowitz in Position 2 all the way to the line.
Sunday’s finale ends on a long but moderately-sloped Cat. 1.
79th Tour de Romandie, Stage 4
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 3:40:24
2) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) +0:14
3) Pablo Castrillo (Spain/Movistar) +1:42
22) Michael Leonard (Canada/EF Education-Easypost) 2:05
79th Tour de Romandie GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 15:47
2) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) +0:35
3) Lenny Martinez (France/Bahrain-Victorious) +2:23
18) Michael Leonard (Canada/EF Education-Easypost) +6:00
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