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Woods ties career-best WorldTour stage race final GC result at Tour de Romandie

Rusty loses race lead and slips off podium after final stage time trial

May 2, 2021
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Michael Woods couldn’t keep the Tour de Romandie’s race lead or hang on to the podium after Sunday’s final stage time trial in Fribourg. However, his fifth place on GC ties a career high in WorldTour stage races, the Canadian achieving the same result at the 2016 Tour Down Under. Geraint Thomas overcame his 9-second deficit to Woods to claim the title. Woods’ 23:05 was the 28th best time on the day, while Remi Cavagna’s was the best.

The Course

The most imposing feature of Sunday’s 16.1-km route was a cobbled 1.1 km climb at 11.7 percent soon after the start. It was another wet day at the 74th Tour de Romandie.

Woods not only had Thomas 11 seconds behind him at the start of the day, but he also had Thomas’ teammate Richie Porte 36 seconds in arrears. Hanging on to the podium was a big ask.

French national TT champion Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step) was on the hot seat with a time of 21:55 when Thomas and Woods started.

At the midway point time check, Woods (14:19) trailed Thomas (13:48) by 32 seconds.

Thomas would come up a little short in surpassing Cavagna for the stage win, but the Brit’s 22:12 was good enough to wear the Romandie crown.

Thomas, Porte, Cavagna’s teammate Fausto Masnada and Marc Soler would finish ahead of Rusty Woods in the GC.

2021 Tour de Romandie Stage 5
1) Remi Cavagna (France/Deceuninck-Quick Step) 21:55
2) Stefan Bissigger (Switzerland/EF Education-Nippo) +0:06
3) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) +0:17
28) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +1:10

2021 Tour de Romandie GC
1) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos) 17:59:57
2) Richie Porte (Australia/Ineos) +0:28
3) Fausto Masnada (Italy/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:38
4) Marc Soler (Spain/Movistar) +0:39
5) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +0:43