Quartet retain top-10 places in Romandie

26 Apr 2018

Quartet retain top-10 places in Romandie

Four Team Sky riders held station in the top 10 at the Tour de Romandie as the day’s breakaway stayed clear at the finish.

Geraint Thomas retained third place overall, four seconds back on the yellow jersey of Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo). Diego Rosa sits one place further back in fourth, five seconds off the lead. Along with Rosa, Egan Bernal picked up a top 10 on the stage and kept hold of the young rider’s jersey, in addition to seventh overall at the race’s halfway point. Jonathan Castroviejo remains eighth, sitting on the same time as Bernal, 10 seconds back.
 
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) pushed clear of his remaining breakaway counterparts with 26 kilometres to go and claimed an impressive solo victory into Yverdon-les-Bains by two minutes and four seconds.
 
The original five-man break was thinned out to three over the second category Col des Etroits, and with all the day’s categorised climbs completed, the trio entered the final 40km with a promising gap of 5:25.
 
David Lopez and Pavel Sivakov set about helping on the front alongside Bahrain Merida, but in the end the chase was simply about limiting the damage, hauling back GC threat Nathan Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), while De Gendt prevailed to take a convincing win.
 
The general classification picture should evolve further on Friday with a 9.9km uphill time trial from Ollon to Villars.
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After the stage Sport Director Dario Cioni talked us through the race so far. He explained: "It's been a pretty good start to the race and we're heading into the uphill time trial in a decent position. We've got G, Diego, Egan and Castro all pretty close together and near the front. Even better is seeing how well the riders are racing together. It's great to see guys like Pavel contributing so well, and it's only going to be good for him to be riding alongside and learning from guys like Luke Rowe.

"So far we've only had one really big GC day which was the opening prologue, but the next two days now should be key, starting with the time trial tomorrow.

"It's a tough course with nowhere to hide and no one to help you. Roglic will be tough to beat but G is going well, and it's great to see Rosa up there. Egan is really impressive but we have to remember he is in his first race back from injury. Jonathan is the one who is probably least suited to the course, as more of a pure TT guy, but I'm sure he will put in a good ride."

Stage two result:

1. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) 4:03:05
2. Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) 2:04"
3. Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r-La Mondiale) s.t.
4. Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)
5. Michael Morkov (Quick-Step Floors)
7. Diego Rosa (Team Sky)
8. Egan Bernal (Team Sky)


Overall standings:

1. Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) 8:14:25
2. Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) s.t.
3. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) +4"
4. Diego Rosa (Team Sky) +5"

5. Pierre Latour (Ag2r-La Mondiale) s.t.
7. Egan Bernal (Team Sky) +10"
8. Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) +10"