It hasn’t been the smoothest transition from Ineos Grenadiers to EF Education-Easypost for Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, but he won Saturday’s queen stage of the 77th Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, his first WorldTour victory with the Pink Armada. Juan Ayuso, who assumed the race lead on Friday, found the golden jersey ripped from his shoulders by another Spaniard, Ineos’ Carlos Rodriguez. One day remains in the 77th edition.
The Course
Five categorized climbs were spread out over 151.7 km. The summit finish was Leysin, 13.8 km of 6 percent.
The queen stage of the #TDR2024 is here!
Five classified climbs, including the summit finish on Leysin, and more than 3000 vertical meters are on the menu of today’s demanding stage which should widen the gaps between the GC men. pic.twitter.com/cBtkEalw3G
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) April 27, 2024
The GC Situation
Although 18 riders were within a minute of race leader Juan Ayuso, his main threats came from Bora-Hansgrohe’s Aleksandr Vlasov +0:10, Ineos’ Carlos Rodriguez +0:11 and Groupama-FDJ’s Lenny Martinez +0:23.
A quartet of fugitives took off early, one of whom, German Juri Hollmann of Alpecin-Deceuninck, was out to bolster his King of the Mountains lead. Before he dropped away from both the breakaway and the peloton, Hollmann only secured four points on the first three climbs. Breakmate Bart Lemmen, on the other hand, was maxing out those point offerings.
On the penultimate climb, Cat. 3 Les Giettes, Clément Berthet distanced Lemmen. Close behind, Ineos took over from UAE-Emirates at the front of the peloton. Berthet was the only remaining escapee on the descent of Giettes.
Berthet romped on ahead of the peloton as the race galloped towards the summit finish climb, the TV coverage waiting until the foot of the ascent to start broadcasting for some reason. Brandon McNulty, Friday’s chrono victor, faded early.
Leysin
The Frenchman from Decathlon-AG2R hit the climb with a minute’s gap, Ineos still tugging the diminished favourites’ group. Berthet came to heel with 5.3 km to climb. Egan Bernal almost immediately made a move and seven riders formed around his surge. Ayuso looked stressed. Florian Lipowitz attacked, drawing Carapaz and Rodriguez. Ayuso was in difficulty.
Carapaz made a dig with 2.3 km remaining. He was too far down to take over the race lead, but he could earn the…
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