Spanish hopeful Carlos Rodriguez reached a milestone by winning the best victory of his young career at the Tour de Romandie, Sunday in Vernier, near Geneva. This is the first time that the young rider from the Ineos Grenadier team has won a stage event counting towards the World Tour.
The Andalusian, aged 23, had made the difference the day before by taking third place in the queen stage (five climbs) during which the former leader Juan Ayuso, another young Spanish talent (21 years old), did not couldn’t keep up with the best.
As expected, the fifth and final stage, over a 150.8 km course without major difficulty around Vernier, did not upset the general classification. At the end of a slow race, contested in rainy and cool weather, the Frenchman Dorian Godon once again showed his burst of speed in the sprint. He had already won in the first stage on Wednesday.
“Cycling is a story of spiraling, of confidence. My teammates did a lot of work for me”reacted the runner from the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale team, aged 27, to the microphone of the L’Équipe channel.
This is the twelfth victory for the French team this season, already three more than during the entire 2023 season, and the second of the Ile-de-France player’s career in a stage of the World Tour.
A victory at the 2023 Tour de France
Carlos Rodriguez was content to stay in the peloton on Sunday, surrounded by his teammates, including the Colombian Egan Bernal. He maintained his small lead in the general classification, of 7 seconds over the Russian Alexandre Vlasov (2e) and 9 on the German Florian Lipowitz (3e). The best Frenchman, Lenny Martinez, finished 8e at 52 seconds.
Rodriguez had shown his potential in 2023 by winning a mountain stage of the Tour de France in Morzine then finishing fifth in the general classification in Paris, in his first participation. Early in form this season, three weeks ago he won the last stage of the Tour of the Basque Country and took second place in the final.