Home > News

Küng solos to victory in Stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie

May 1, 2015
Share on SMS

On Friday Stefan Küng (Switzerland/BMC) busted loose from a breakaway to triumph in front of a delighted Fribourg, Switzerland crowd on a cold, wet Stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie. Küng’s compatriot Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) retains the race lead with two stages to go.

The day’s route contained three categorized climbs, including the Cat. 3 ascent up to Treyvaux, 12-km from the finish in Fribourg. An escape of six riders scuttled away soon after the start, but by the first climb of the day, Cat. 2 Les Paccots, it was down to a quartet. Jan Bakelants, a Belgian from Ag2r, took the maximum points on Les Paccots.

The soggy, Sky-led peloton kept the leash short over the uncategorized bumps between Les Paccots and the next Cat. 2 climb to Sorens. Pavel Kochetkov (Russia/Katusha) took the Sorens KOM points. In the valley before Treyvaux Stefan Küng (Switzerland/BMC) found himself alone at the front of the race. The members of the peloton, having exhausted their synonyms for “wet”, seemed to give up after the Sorens. Tinkoff-Saxo volunteered to guide the soaked gang home.

Tension could be found up front. Could Küng solo to victory or would his breakmates organize themselves into an effective chase? Küng held a 20-second lead over the fragmenting trio with 13-km remaining. With the Swiss gritting his teeth up front, Tony Martin and Julian Alaphilippe of Etixx-QuickStep surged away from the peloton.

World individual pursuit champion Küng celebrated heartily before hitting the line and Alaphilippe’s bid to take the yellow jersey from Albasini failed.

Saturday the action hots up with a 166-km, four Cat. 1 journey that ends on the summit of Champex-Lac.

2015 Tour de Romandie Stage 4
1) Stefan Küng (Switzerland/BMC) 4:35:10
2) Jan Bakelants (Belgium/Ag2r) +0:38
3) Bert-Jan Lindeman (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo) +0:39
48) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +0:52

2015 Tour de Romandie GC
1) Michael Albasini (Switzerland/Orica-GreenEdge) 13:33:40
2) Ivan Santaromita (Italy/Orica-GreenEdge) +0:20
3) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) s.t.
26) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +1:00

Categories: News |