Twenty-year-old Juan Ayuso, third place in last year’s Vuelta a España, hadn’t raced in 2023 until Tuesday’s start of the 76th Tour de Romandie, his season delayed by a suspected neuralgia affecting a tendon in his lower leg. But on Friday’s third stage time trial, the remarkable young Spaniard won the day and took over the race lead. It was his first WorldTour victory. Michael Woods was 63rd.
The race so far
The first three days of the Tour de Romandie each featured a winner who became the race leader. Czech Josef Černý (Soudal-Quick Step) took the prologue time trial and led until his British teammate Ethan Vernon won the bunch sprint the next day. Another British Ethan, Hayter of Ineos triumphed on Thursday to jump into the yellow jersey, six seconds up on Norwegian world time trial champion Tobias Foss and Rémi Cavagna, and 11 seconds ahead of Juan Ayuso.
Michael Woods rose in the GC from 139th to 106th to 56th in those three days.
Friday’s fare was another time trial, this time an 18.7-km effort with a hill dominating the latter half of the route. There was one time check at the 9.4 km mark on the climb.
Today’s stage of the @TourDeRomandie is an 18.75km time trial, with a 3km climb, and a fast descent, where the riders will reach 100kph!
🚩Châtel-Saint-Denis
🏁Châtel-Saint-Denis
🛣️18.75km
__
🇨🇭#TDR2023 pic.twitter.com/hVGPbwpsKI— Israel – Premier Tech (@IsraelPremTech) April 28, 2023
As one would expect in the early going, the hot seat occupant changed several times, and one could speculate that the day’s winning time would be between 25 and 24 minutes.
With the top-50 on the course, Dane Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) knocked DSM’s German Marco Brenner off the hot seat with 25:39.
Woods posted an intermediate time of 15:17 and stopped the clock with 26:57. He moved up to 51st on GC.
Movistar’s American Will Barta clipped Bjerg with 25:34. He was soon surpassed by compatriot and teammate Matteo Jorgenson at 25:20.
At the time check, Ayuso was five seconds adrift of teammate Adam Yates’ best mark of 14:21, but the Spaniard stopped the clock at the finish with 25:15. UAE-Emirates claimed two of the top three spots, and Movistar took three of the top five spots.
Ayuso will be contesting the Vuelta again this season.
Saturday is the queen stage, one that ends on Thyon 2000, 20.9 km…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…