Carlos Rodriguez takes Romandie lead

  • 27 Apr 24
  • race Report

Tour de Romandie stage 4: Saillon > Leysin (151.7km) 

Carlos Rodriguez moved into the race lead after tremendous teamwork from the Grenadiers in an exciting stage four of Tour de Romandie. 

Rodriguez finished third on the stage as he finished just behind solo winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education First) to move into the yellow leader's after his teammates had taken control of the race. 

The former Spanish national champion will take a seven second lead into Sunday's final stage ahead of Bora Hansgrohe pair Aleksandr Vlasov and Florian Lipowitz. 

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Carlos Rodriguez will take a seven second lead into the final stage
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Egan Bernal's attack on the final climb created splits in the GC group

Earlier, the Grenadiers had set their stall out with Magnus Sheffeld, Ethan Hayter and Oscar Rodriguez keeping the team well-positioned at the front of the peloton for the first of five categorised climbs. 

With the aim to pressure race leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and his team, Oscar Rodriguez then put in one final push on Les Rives before letting Jonathan Castroviejo and Hayter keep a strong pace over the subsequent category three climb and the flat section before the summit finish to Leysin. 

This pace gradually thinned an already reduced peloton, with Thymen Arensman then taking over to kick-start the decisive move on the final ascent. 

Bernal attacked an ever-dwindling group, with only a handful of GC riders able to follow, before Lipowitz and then Carapaz countered, the Olympic champion able to go clear and solo to victory. 

Lipowitz and Rodriguez gave chase but were unable to catch Carapaz, however the INEOS Grenadiers rider made significant ground overall to take the race lead by seven seconds from Vlasov with one stage remaining.