Froome wins the queen stage in Tour de Romandie
Chris Froome powered to a solo victory on stage four at the Tour de Romandie, the queen stage of the race.
The Brit went into the day targeting stage victory and attacked early heading into the final 40 kilometres, opening out a decisive gap alongside Tejay van Garderen, before pushing on solo up to Villars-sur-Ollon.
Despite attacks firing in a reduced peloton behind, Froome was able to maintain a healthy advantage, measuring his efforts late on to win the queen stage by four seconds in soaking conditions.
The result was particularly sweet after the two-time winner saw his general classification ambitions deflated on Thursday due to an inopportune puncture.
“It’s been a tough race so far,” said Froome behind the podium, “so to come and win the queen stage today, especially attacking so far out, is a great feeling. It’s nice as a team for us to get a victory here and not come away empty handed.
“It’s a road I remember from two years ago, with similar conditions to today in the rain and cold. I thought if I’m going to get away it’s going to have to be a long way from the finish. Tejay van Garderen came with me and the two of us worked together really well. He had the objective for the general classification and I had my sights set on winning the stage. I’m just really happy that it worked out in the end.”
With regards to his current form, Froome reiterated that the big goal is to be ready for the upcoming Tour de France. “I’m not necessarily here to show anything – I’m here more for myself for preparations going forward,” added. “Obviously my big goal is to be ready for July. I needed some good racing this week to set me up for that.”
Froome and Van Garderen held an advantage of close to a minute as they negotiated two ascents of the Barboleusaz climb. The GC battle behind produced a barrage of attacks, with Ion Izagirre (Movistar) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) rounding out the podium positions.
Fifth over the line was enough to ensure Nairo Quintana (Movistar) retained his overall lead, taking a margin of 19 seconds into Sunday’s final stage.
Tour de Romandie 2016 – stage 4 results (Conthey – Villars-s/Ollon):
| 1 | Chris Froome (Sky) |
4:24:44 |
| 2 | Ion Izagirre (Movistar) |
+04” |
| 3 | Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) |
,, |
| 4 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) |
,, |
| 5 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
,, |
| 6 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) |
,, |
| 7 | Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) |
,, |
| 8 | Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) |
,, |
| 9 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) |
+09” |
| 10 | Simon Spilak (Katusha) |
,, |
General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) |
12:07:03 |
| 2 | Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) |
+19” |
| 3 | Ion Izagirre (Movistar) |
+23” |
| 4 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) |
+26” |
| 5 | Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) |
+57” |
| 6 | Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) |
+01’12” |
| 7 | Simon Spilak (Katusha) |
+01’16” |
| 8 | Mathias Frank (IAM) |
,, |
| 9 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) |
+01’24” |
| 10 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) |
+01’27” |
