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Thibaut Pinot wins queen stage of the Tour de Romandie

French rider Thibaut Pinot of FDJ took the rainy queen stage of the Tour de Romandie Saturday, while the day’s runner-up Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) nicked the yellow leader’s jersey from Michael Albasini (Switzerland/Orica-GreenEdge).

Latter stages of stage races tend to inspire large breakaways, but on Saturday only mountains jersey wearer Maxim Belkov (Russia/Katusha)–who wasn’t in fact wearing the pink jersey for some reason–and Bryan Naulleau (France/Europcar) sallied forth to face four Cat. 1 climbs. Belkov padded his lead atop the Col des Mosses and Les Giettes, while Albasini had some trouble on the latter climb.

The final two Cat. 1’s were packed into the final 25-km of the 166-km stage. Astana was riding with intent at the front of the peloton. The duo’s lead was 3:00 as it started the penultimate climb, the Petite Forclaz, but Belkov left Naulleau behind on the opening slopes. Once more, Albasini drifted off the back of the peloton.

The heavens opened and Belkov carried on with the Movistar-led peloton closing, the entire race now soggy. Belkov summited and then submitted to the will of the group on the downhill.

The Champex-Lac climb is a brute–10.4-km of 8.2% with the steepest slopes in kilometres two to four. On the lead-up to the ascent Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) was seen at the back of the peloton. Was he playing possum? Movistar continued to turn the screws at the front, but Nairo Quintana (Colombia) was soon fresh out of teammates.

The first attack came from Belkov’s teammate Egor Silin (Russia) at the 8.3-km to go mark. Nothing came of it, but the pace stayed high and more riders were shelled out the back. Finally, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/Etixx-QuickStep) and compatriot Quintana attacked with 7.2-km remaining. A select group of twelve formed around them. Froome clung on like grim death.

After a failed attempt, Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r) ripped away with Simon Spilak (Slovenia/Katusha) with 5.5-km to go, soon drawing Pinot, who immediately left them behind. When Froome accelerated Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) and Uran fell back. Pinot beat on alone, but it took a while to pull out a large gap.

Between Pinot and the Froome group was Zakarin. The Russian was closing the gap but lost hope in the final kilometre. Zakarin came in 7-seconds after an exuberant Pinto, who took his first win since 2012. Bardet placed third.

With only Sunday’s 17.3-km time trial left, Froome is best placed to win the Tour de Romandie
2015 Tour de Romandie Stage 5
1) Thibaut Pinot (France/FDJ) 4:38:54
2) Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) +0:07
3) Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r) +0:20
27) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +3:45

2015 Tour de Romandie GC
1) Ilnur Zakarin (Russia/Katusha) 18:13:00
2) Thibaut Pinot (France/FDJ) +0:06
3) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) +0:14
25) Ryder Hesjedal (Canada/Cannondale-Garmin) +4:19

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