Tour de Romandie: Colbrelli wins stage 2

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Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) won stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie ahead of Patrick Bevin (Israel Start-Up Nation) in another reduced bunch sprint.

After stage 1 winner Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) had been among the sprinters dropped on the day’s final climb, Colbrelli was the quickest in the sprint, delivering his first victory of the season after a lead-out from two of his Bahrain Victorious teammates.

Rohan Dennis held onto the yellow jersey, after taking it upon himself to neutralise a short-lived attack from Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) on the final climb, setting the pace for teammates Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte.

He continued to set the pace on the descent to the finish, ensuring none of the GC riders made an attack. 

That meant the stage was, for a second day running, decided by a sprint finish from a reduced peloton, with Colbrelli going one better this time to win the stage, just pipping Bevin.

Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) was third, with Clement Champoussin (Ag2r Citroen) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) rounding off the top five. 

Despite a parcours that featured six categorised climbs, serious attacks from the GC favourites did not come into fruition, as Ineos Grenadiers exercised a vice-like grip on the race.

Although a strong breakaway group of potential GC riders went clear at the start of the stage, including Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious) and Chirs Hamilton (Team BikeExchange), Ineos Grenadiers kept them under the control, and brought them back before the final climb of the day.

On that final climb, there was more interest at the back of the peloton rather than at the front, as one-by-one the sprinters were dropped.

Only around 40 riders remained at the top, and Colbrelli stood out as the superior sprinter. The Italian duly delivered in the finale to sprint for victory, and also moves up to fifth overall as a result of the bonus seconds gained. 

How it unfolded

Dark clouds loomed ominously over the second stage of the Tour de Romandie, but the rain mercifully held off. 

A six-man breakaway formed on the first of the day’s six climbs, and it featured some quality climbers. Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious) was the highest of the six on GC at 28 seconds, and was joined by Chris Hamilton (Team BikeExchange), Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma), Davide Villella (Movistar), Jonathan Caicedo (Ef Education-Nippo) and Rein Taaramae (Intermarche-Wanty Gobert Materiaux). 

With such quality in their ranks, and a profile that went up and down all day, the break will have fancied their chances of making it to the finish. But with the GC still so compact this early into the race, and all six riders within a minute of overall leader Rohan Dennis, they were unlikely to be given much freedom. 

Even so, the peloton allowed them a fair amount of leeway at first, letting them build a lead of about 2:30. It took until around 70km to go for Ineos Grenadiers to up the pace with domestiques Owain Doull and Andrey Amador, and from then the gap started to plummet, until it had been reduced to 1:15 as they crossed the finish line for the penultimate time 50km from the finish, ahead of the day’s penultimate climb, the category two Les Pontins. 

Shortly before the climb, Taarame opened up a small gap over the rest of the break, and continued to press on as the road went uphill. By the top, he was about half a minute ahead of the chasing group, from which Tolhoek had been dropped. 

Meanwhile in the peloton, Ineos Grenadiers knocked off the pace on the climb, presumably wanting to keep as many domestiques together as possible, and thus allowed the gap to grow back out again to over two minutes.

They once again upped the pace on the following descent and valley roads, and this time began eating into the gap rapidly, and swallowed up the group about 30km from the finish.

A committed Taarame remained out in front, still with a lead of just under two minutes, but was burning a lot of matches by riding hard on his own. 

Eddie Dunbar took over the pace-setting for Ineos Grenadiers at the start of the category one La Vue-des-Alpes, the last and hardest climb of the day, and riders immediately began being spat out of the back of the peloton. 

It wasn’t long before Taarame was reeled in, who by now was paying for his earlier effort and had virtually sat up even before the catch was made 21.5km from the finish.

With the race all back together, Ilan Van Wilder (Team DSM) chanced his luck with an attack, and was joined by six other riders. Of those riders, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) and Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) went clear from the rest, but were unable to make the attack stick and the peloton swallowed them back up.

Interestingly, it was Dennis who set the pace to catch the break for teammates Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, indicating that, despite wearing the yellow jersey, the Australian’s role was still as a domestique.

Dennis continued to ride tempo all the way to the top, by which time no more than 40 riders remained in the peloton. The Australian even remained at the front on the following descent, making absolutely sure no team took Ineos by surprise with any attacks on the downhill.

He at last got a break when Pernsteiner (despite being in the break earlier) offered some assistance with just over 6km from the finish, working for Bahrain-Victorious teammate Sonny Colbrelli, who was the highest-profile sprinter to still be in the group. 

Ben O’Conor (Ag2r Citroen) attempted an attack 2km from the finish, and Dennis and Thomas grabbed onto his wheel, briefly opening up a small gap over the peloton.

It was chased down by Woods, and everything came back together under the 1km to go banner, when Bahrain Victorious began their lead-out and set Colbrelli up for the win.