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Stellar day for UAE-Emirates at the Tour de Romandie

McNulty wins the time trial, Ayuso grabs the race lead

Photo by: Sirotti
April 26, 2024
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There were big smiles in the UAE-Emirates camp after Friday’s medium-length time trial at the Tour de Romandie, as Brandon McNulty claimed the stage, Felix Großschartner was third and Juan Ayuso, by coming fourth, snatched the golden leader’s jersey with two stages remaining. Ayuso has already won Itzulia Basque Country and come second in Tirreno-Adriatico this season.

The Course

The route went uphill almost from the start in Oron, peaked near the intermediate time check at Kilometre 7.9 and descended to the finish line back in Oron. At first it was wet in the first half of the course, but the rain opened up later in the day.

GC-wise, McNulty was having a bummer, way down in 142nd after fifth in Itzulia Basque Country and third in Paris-Nice. This meant that when he set the best time of 20:06 he was going to be in the hot seat for a long time.

Captain America wasn’t having a good Tour de Romandie until Friday.

By the time the GC top-25 was under way, the course was rather damp.

Aleksandr Vlasov was only a second behind Ayuso going into Friday, and at the intermediate time check, the Bora-Hansgrohe rider was seven seconds faster. But Ayuso turned it around, scoring fourth place on the day and putting nine more seconds into Vlasov. Ayuso’s main GC threats on Saturday’s mountainous stage are Vlasov, Carlos Rodriguez and Lenny Martinez.

Saturday is the queen stage, five categorized climbs over 159 km including a Cat. 1 summit finish.

2024 Tour de Romandie Stage 3
1) Brandon McNulty (USA/UAE-Emirates) 20:06
2) Magnus Sheffield (USA/Ineos Grenadiers) +0:12
3) Felix Großschartner (Austria/UAE-Emirates) +0:14

2024 Tour de Romandie GC
1) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) 8:16:26
2) Ilan Van Wilder (Belgium/Soudal-Quick Step) +0:07
3) Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:10