The second Swiss World Tour race alongside the Tour de Suisse has to come up with something to keep it from losing its importance.
Sergio Andres Higuita Garcia (centre, in white jersey) beats his teammate Alexander Wlassow (left) in the sprint.
It got a little entertaining on the very last meters. Russia’s Alexander Vlasov celebrated his supposed victory, but Colombia’s Sergio Higuita rolled past him before the finish line was reached. Vlasov must have been annoyed, but he couldn’t let it show because Higuita is his team-mate. So the Russian showed acting talent and just kept cheering.
The leader Rohan Dennis was hardly challenged
There is not much more to report from the fourth and penultimate stage of the Tour de Romandie. Although previously described as the king’s stage, the course of the race on Saturday turned out to be just as uneventful as that on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The field with the favorites for overall victory reached the six-kilometer final climb to Grimentz, for which excitement had been promised, which turned out to be overly optimistic.
Sergio Higuita wins the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie from Aigle to Zinal in the final sprint.
The Swiss Gino Mäder and Sébastien Reichenbach are 7th and 8th. #srfsport #wheel #tourderomandie https://t.co/PfpL2428Xg— SRF Sport (@srfsport) April 30, 2022
The peloton caught up with the last escapees going uphill. Without resistance, it let the rather unknown Colombian Einem Augusto Rubio drive away, only to catch up with him later. Neither star launched a decisive attack. No one challenged Australian time trial specialist Rohan Dennis, who defended the overall leader’s jersey.
Dennis rarely had to survive those rapid changes of pace that would have most likely gotten him into trouble. It went to the highest point as monotonously as a time trialist could hope for. It was not until the final kilometer in Zinal that there was an open fight for the day’s victory, crowned by Wlasow’s slapstick interlude.
The criticism of the French climber Thibaut Pinot
The Tour de Romandie has a bit of bad luck with its date, which is assigned to it by the world cycling association UCI. In April, the fans were spoiled with a spectacle that didn’t want to end. From the Tour of Flanders, where the two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar was defeated by the all-rounder Mathieu van der Poel with the last of his strength, to the 29-kilometer solo escape of the child prodigy Remco Evenepoel at Liège-Bastogne-Liège: It was worth it turn on the TV every weekend.
And next Friday the Giro d’Italia begins, often the most exciting of the three-week tours. If you don’t watch, you’re likely to miss out on a lot this year.
So far, this has not been the case for the Tour de Romandie. The second Swiss World Tour race alongside the Tour de Suisse has to come up with something to keep it from losing its importance. One option could be to make the sections even harder. The French climber Thibaut Pinot complained at the finish that the queen’s stage wasn’t really high in the mountains. Then he might have taken a risk. It would have benefited the event.
75th Tour de Romandie. 4th stage, Aigle – Zinal (180.1 km): 1.Sergio Higuita (COL) 4:58:52. 2. Alexander Vlasov (RUS). 3. Juan Ayuso (ESP). 4. Ben O’Connor (AUS). 5. Thibaut Pinot (FRA). 6.Michael Woods (CAN). 7. Gino Maeder (SUI). 8. Sebastien Reichenbach (SUI). 9. Simon Geschke (GER). 10. Carlos Verona (ESP), all same time. 11. Rohan Dennis (AUS) 0:03 behind.
Also: 20th Marc Hirschi (SUI) 0:35. 21 Damiano Caruso (ITA) 0:38. 24. Mauro Schmid (SUI) 1:20. 27. Geraint Thomas (GBR), same time. 47. Chris Froome (GBR) 6:21. 51. Mathias Flückiger (SUI), same time. 53. Matteo Badilatti (SUI) 7:14. 74. Antoine Debons (SUI) 14:55. 79.Yannis Voisard (SUI) 18:24. 80. Michael Schär (SUI), same time. 101 Filippo Colombo (SUI) 22:45. 107 Nils Brun (SUI) 25:45. 113.Tom Bohli (SUI) 30:09. 115. Dario Lillo (SUI), same time. 117. Valere Thiébaud (SUI) 38:41. – 127 started, 117 classified. – Abandoned: ao Johan Jacobs (SUI) – Not started: ao Brandon McNulty (USA), Fernando Gaviria (COL).
Overall classification: 1. Dennis 17:27:01. 2. Ayuso 0:15. 3. Vlasov 0:18. 4. O’Connor 0:25. 5. Luke Plapp (AUS) 0:30. 6. Mader 0:32. 7. Reichenbach 0:37. 8.Neilson Powless (USA) 0:41. 9. Gifts 0:42. 10 Steff Cras (BEL) 0:45. Also: 16. Hirschi 1:00. 21. Smith 1:39. 22. Higuita 1:54. 23. Thomas 1:55. 44. Flicker 9:07. 61. Badilatti 19:29. 64. Voisard 22:12. 67. Colombo 23:15. 69. Froome 24:03. 78. Schär 28:47. 100. Debons 45:33. 105. Lillo 49:18. 109. Brun 54:12. 113. Bohli 56:17. 117. Thiébaud 1:12:02.