The 2024 Tour de Romandie was not the most thrilling nor action-packed event of the spring, but it had plenty to offer, with an amusingly short prologue to start, a tricky Queen Stage, and the yellow jersey changing hands daily until the final weekend. Oh, and plenty of weather to contend with.
The contenders for the overall title seemed fairly evenly matched on the few opportunities they had to show themselves, and in the end it was the 23-year-old Spaniard Carlos Rodríguez of Ineos Grenadiers who raced confidently with the support of his team, all the way into the first GC title of his blossoming career.
- This year’s Tour de Romandie kicked off with a prologue of just 2.28 fairly technical kilometres in Payerne. In these events we get to see an unusual skillset on show, and it’s always interesting to see who thrives over such short distances – quite often sprinters and Classics specialists do particularly well. On this occasion, Julian Alaphilippe had a fantastic ride that was good enough for third, but he was outdone by a surprise package wrapped in a Tudor Pro Cycling jersey. Maikel Zijlaard had targeted the opening stage, ultimately pulling on his team’s very first WorldTour race leader’s jersey – sadly the 24-year-old Dutchman crashed out on the third day with a fractured elbow.
- After such a short prologue, the gaps were minuscule going into the first road stage, which made for some varying tactics on the dynamic race to Fribourg. Having seen off overnight leader Zijlaard earlier on, third-overall Alaphilippe was active in the run-in, attempting to string out or fracture the bunch for himself or his team, while Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale had a clear plan of their own. With puncheur and Giro stage winner Andrea Vendrame in his corner, fourth-overall Dorian Godon was the first across the line after a powerful sprint, looking at first like the lead-out man for his Italian teammate but never peeling off in order to grab maximum advantage across the line.
- The first of two proper mountainous stages tempted out a strong seven-man breakaway: Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Roger Adrià (Bora-Hansgrohe), Nikias Arndt (Bahrain Victorious), Sean Flynn (DSM-firmenich PostNL), Xabier Azparren (Q36.5), the previous day’s runner-up Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R) and 21-year-old Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek). There was no reason to believe it would be anything but a GC day – one of just two, not including the ITT(s) – but with Groupama-FDJ left to a pretty lonely task in the valley before the final climb, Nys and Vendrame stayed clear to the summit, gaining one lone counter-attacker from the bunch in Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), but Nys was able to out-punch his rivals to the line, taking over the yellow jersey in the process.
- Among the GC riders on the same climb, some seemed interested in probing efforts, but with the top favourites reluctant or unable to make a difference on the fairly steady Les Marecottes (7.6 km at 7.5%) it was over to the outside bets. Plapp and Florian Lipowitz (Bora-Hansgrohe) were allowed to slip away, and though the young German was unable to stay with the Aussie national champ, he stole a couple of seconds off the GC favourites who were led home by Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) 16 seconds after the winner.
- Friday was time for the ITT proper, its 15.5 kilometres presenting a decent test for the best against the clock. With worsening weather expected later in the afternoon, Brandon McNulty was well placed to put himself in the hot seat, and the US national champion more than delivered. His closest rival in the end was compatriot Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) 13 seconds off the best time, with UAE teammate Felix Großschartner joining them on the podium, and new race leader Ayuso proving the best of the later-starting GC favourites 20 seconds slower than his teammate.
- Next up was the Queen Stage featuring five classified climbs and a finish up the 13.8-kilometre ascent to Leysin, average gradient 6%. Breakaway survivor Clément Berthet (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) led the race onto the final climb with about a minute’s advantage, but the GC teams were ready to pounce, Ineos Grenadiers setting a fierce pace with Egan Bernal working for Carlos Rodríguez who was sitting 11 seconds down in fourth overall.
- Bernal’s acceleration about 5 km from the summit really put pressure on the GC group, and it didn’t take long for Ayuso and second-overall Ilan van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep) to find themselves in difficulty. Lipowitz was the next to attack, drawing a rapid response from Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), with Rodríguez steadily working his way up to the pair. When Carapaz himself made a move, no one could match him, and stage victory began to look nailed on. A fast-finishing Lipowitz made the last few-hundred metres nail-biting for Carapaz and all who were watching, but the reigning Olympic champion just held on with one last burst.
- Holding onto third on the stage was the young Ineos Grenadiers leader, Rodríguez taking over the yellow jersey from compatriot Ayuso who slipped to fifth.
- The revelation of the race, 23-year-old Lipowitz, finished on the same time as the Ecuadorian, moving him up onto the GC podium just nine seconds down with one stage to go. The tricky thing though, is that sandwiched between the German and Carapaz was his Bora-Hansgrohe teammate and leader Aleksandr Vlasov, just seven seconds off the jersey. With the whole top 10 separated by 1:23, and the top five within just 27 seconds, there was scope for a dramatic final stage, despite the unfavourable terrain (rolling but not as punchy as the profile seemed to indicate).
- There were a number of withdrawals before and during the final stage as the weather took a turn for the miserable, several of the dropouts somewhat precautionary with the Giro just around the corner.
- The last 30 km of the final stage were not without drama or action – out the back too there were stragglers tumbling out of the peloton, many suffering in the cold – but it came down to a reduced sprint. Clément Venturini (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) exploded out of the bunch early, acting as a carrot for stage 2-winner Godon and Lidl-Trek’s Simone Consonni who had been carefully protected in the run-in. Godon’s acceleration proved too much for his rivals though, and the Frenchman was victorious once again, thriving in the very same conditions as earlier in the week.
- In the end, none of the GC contenders made any major moves on Rodríguez’s yellow jersey, only Lipowitz putting his nose in the wind to mark the attacks that began on the last classified climb. Ineos Grenadiers kept their man safe to the finish, sealing the young Spaniard’s first WorldTour GC victory, with two Bora-Hansgrohe riders joining him on the podium.
Stage-by-stage results:
- Prologue: Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Pro Cycling)
- Dorian Godon (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)
- Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek)
- Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates); teammate Juan Ayuso into yellow
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost); Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) into yellow
- Dorian Godon; Rodríguez wins overall
Quotes of the week:
Zijlaard got the event underway in pretty spectacular fashion, posting the best time of the prologue to put Tudor Pro Cycling in the spotlight at the WorldTour stage race.
“It’s crazy – I can’t believe it. I started quite early, and the last two hours have been the worst two hours of my life because of the stress. I wanted this so much for myself and for the team. It’s super nice to show that we are capable of doing stuff like this and it’s a super team … I don’t really have the words. To win here in my first pro victory, for a Swiss team in Switzerland – it’s a bit of a dream.”
Zijlaard said giddily after an agonising couple of hours in the not-so-hot seat of the opening prologue
A few days later, the GC contenders took their chance on the Queen Stage, where Carapaz just about overcame a supercharged Lipowitz.
“I took advantage of the work of Ineos Grenadiers, who made the race very hard. Then I made a good attack, which allowed me to stay in front until the finish … Carlos [Rodríguez] and I knew that Lipowitz was the fastest of the three of us, so we had to try from far away. What was also an advantage was that I already knew the finale of this stage. I also did this climb in 2017.”
Carapaz after victory in Leysin, his first WorldTour result since the 2022 Vuelta a España
Brief analysis:
- Egan Bernal doesn’t look set to plateau any time soon, and in his return to the race where his prospects looked good last year (8th overall), the Colombian was busy on the climbs, predominantly in support of top-scoring teammate Carlos Rodríguez, whose seventh-place finish in Friday’s ITT put him in a good position to take over the yellow jersey on the Queen Stage. In the last 5 km of the climb to Leysin, Bernal was the first from the GC group to accelerate, and perhaps unintentionally, he left the rest behind. Thoughts of a throwback solo effort were soon put to rest as his own teammate set about closing him down, but Bernal had succeeded in punishing the favourites group. Ultimately Rodríguez couldn’t hang onto either Carapaz or Lipowitz in the finale, but the Spaniard limited his losses on the tough gradients to take over the yellow jersey, with Bernal finishing just 17 seconds behind in sixth on the stage, moving the Colombian into the GC top 10 before the last stage.
- Bernal’s teammate, meanwhile, continues to step up in the team and the peloton as he builds towards a leadership role at the Tour de France. Faced with a host of seasoned GC riders including previous winners of the Tour de Romandie and a handful Grand Tour champions, Rodríguez was leader of the Ineos Grenadiers team and eager to do one better in his rematch with Ayuso who won Itzulia Basque Country earlier this month. Rodríguez is a proven winner already, a three-time WorldTour stage winner including what might be described as a swashbuckling descent to victory at last year’s Tour, but in Switzerland this week, he seemed confident in the GC mindset; his Queen Stage performance was a quiet and controlled one, never overreacting, just being where he needed to be, i.e. finishing strong and with a suitable margin over his nearest rivals. Job done.
- With its proximity to the Giro d’Italia, which starts in less than a week, the Tour de Romandie is less of a warm-up race these days, and yet while most of the GC contenders have rested, perhaps having opted for the Tour of the Alps (or Liège), there have been a number of stage hunters testing their legs in Switzerland. Foremost among them are Alaphilippe, Plapp, Vendrame, and even young Lipowitz if he’s allowed any freedom at his Grand Tour debut.
- A couple of top squads had a relatively anonymous race, though, including much of the Visma-Lease a Bike team, which has been forced repeatedly to rejig their goals throughout this spring and into the Grand Tour season. After Tim van Dijke’s strong start in the prologue, their most visible rider as the race wore on was former Air Force officer Bart Lemmen who made his mark on the Queen Stage from the breakaway, while the team’s top finisher was the young Norwegian Johannes Staune-Mittet in 20th. Alas, neither are headed to the Giro (at time of writing) where the men in yellow – including two-time Giro stage winner Koen Bouwman who did not start Romandie’s very wet final stage, the team explaining: “He’s not feeling one hundred percent fit.” – are expected to ride for sprinter Olav Kooij, Christophe Laporte and young GC hopeful Cian Uijtdebroeks.
Overall top 10:
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