Tour de Romandie: Kittel wins stage 1 in Moudon

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Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) surprised himself with a victory at the Tour de Romandie when he won the stage 1 bunch sprint in Moudon. The German sprinter partially attributed his victory to the shortened stage, which cut out the first big climb of the day due to snowfall at the top.

Kittel won the dash to the line ahead of Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge).

“This is a special win because it [Tour of Romandie] is not a good one for me as a sprinter,” Kittel said at the finish line. “I came here to work on my condition and to try on the difficult days like today. It was in my favour that the first climb at the beginning was not in the race, but anyway, I just tried to hang on and fight, and got good support from the team. In the end, it was a very nice victory.”

With no changes to the top three in GC, Ion Izagirre (Movistar) kept his lead for another day ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) by six seconds and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) by seven seconds.

Stage 1 at the Tour de Romandie was expected to be the first test for the peloton. The day was originally intended to start with climbing straight out of the gates, but race organisers were forced to shorten the route because of snow fall on the Col d’Etroits, the day’s first and most significant ascent planned for the parcours.

The stage instead started in Mathod, reducing the length from 167km to 109km and leaving the day with only three Cat. 3 climbs: Arrissoules, Surpierre and between Vauderrens and Romont. After the last climb, the field raced predominantly downhill for the final 10km toward the finish where there was a short uphill drag to the line.

With 30km to go, solo breakaway rider Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal) held a lead of two minutes over a pair of chasers: Nico Brüngger (Team Roth), Marinus Cornelis Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

The peloton, mainly led by a combination of Movistar and Orica-GreenEdge over the final ascents, remained some four minutes back.

Movistar picked up the two chasers Brungger and Minnaard on the final climb, but Armee powered on holding a two-minute lead as he crested the top and began the technical, narrow descent.

The lead wasn't enough and the peloton reeled in Armee on the fast descent toward the finish, where Etixx-QuickStep took over at the front of the field to set up for the bunch kick.

One rider set the sprint off early but he faded as Kittel and Bonifazio were just beginning to wind up their sprints with 150 metres to go. It was a close sprint but Kittel took the win.

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