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Dorion Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took his second win of the week at the Tour de Romandie to round out the race with another triumph on a wet day out in Vernier.
The Frenchman outpaced Simone Consonni (Lidl-Trek) and Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty), going long to get the jump on his rivals in the reduced bunch finish.
After ascending to the race lead on Saturday’s stage 4 to Leysin, Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) secured the overall victory to take the first stage race victory of his career. The Spaniard beat Bora-Hansgrohe Aleksandr Vlasov and Florian Lipowitz by seven and nine seconds respectively to seal the win.
The day was always likely to be one decided by the fast men, even with seven ascents of the 1.6km Dardagny climb lying in wait on the largely circuit-based final stage.
Attacks flew at the front after the break of the day was brought back inside the final 30km, but things came back together as the likes of UAE Team Emirates, Lidl-Trek, and Visma-Lease A Bike controlled the peloton for the final dash to the line.
In the end, the riders those teams had hoped to set up were caught behind as the final bend loomed, and it was instead Godon who launched himself from the front to take a largely uncontested win.
Further back in the 67-man group, Rodríguez crossed the line safely with the overall victory and the best young rider prize in the bag. Godon’s win saw him overhaul Decathlon AG2R teammate Andrea Vendrame for the points jersey, while Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck) came away with the mountain classification win.
How it unfolded
The final stage of the 2024 Tour de Romandie would take the riders on a 151km route based on four laps of a hilly 35km circuit in Vernier. The main challenge of the day would be the 1.6km, 4% climb of Dardagny, coming three times during the stage, though nothing likely to trouble the main GC names – aside from potential time bonuses at the top of the…
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