photo credit @ Twitter
BMC’s young Stefan Küng won stage 4 of this year’s Tour de Romandie, after escaping from a small breakaway group, to claim a solo victory amidst the backdrop of a rainy mountain finish in Fribourg.
“I like the rain; I like the cold,” said Küng “I was thinking about how I could win. … When it was the moment, I went.
“When I reached the top of the last GPM [climb] I quite knew it was a good moment.”
Race Highlights
Today’s four-man breakaway group, contained Kung, Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha), Jan Bakelants (Ag2r La Mondiale), and Bert-Jan Lindemann (LottoNL-Jumbo).
The young Swiss rider managed to ride clear of his breakaway companions, subsequently building up a sizable advantage of 2:28 during the final 15 kilometers of today’s race.
A determined peloton, that was being driven by Tinkoff-Saxo, eventually brought the gap down under 2 minutes, while the remnants of the breakaway group continued to linger in the middle.
As the race entered into the final 6 kilometer, Etixx – QuickStep teammates, Tony Martin and Julian Alaphilippe., decided to attack from within the peloton.
However, despite their efforts to close in on the leader, the Etixx duo, along with the remaining trio from the breakaway group, were unable to close down on Küng.
Indeed, the BMC rider continued to drive hard until the finish, crossing the line with his arms extended in victory.
Meanwhile, Bakelants won the sprint for second, followed by Lindeman in third.
Despite finishing further back in the peloton, Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) managed to keep his grip on the overall lead.
Stage 4 Results SUI 1 KUNG, Stefan (BMC RACING) 4:35:10 BEL 2 BAKELANTS, Jan (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 38 NED 3 LINDEMAN, Bertjan (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) GER 4 MARTIN, Tony (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 45 BEL 5 MEERSMAN, Gianni (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 52 BEL 6 VAN DER SANDE, Tosh (LOTTO SOUDAL) GER 7 FRÖHLINGER, Johannes (GIANT – ALPECIN) SUI 8 ALBASINI, Michael (ORICA GreenEDGE) GBR 9 YATES, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) ITA 10 SANTAROMITA, Ivan (ORICA GreenEDGE)
General Classification after Stage 4 SUI 1 ALBASINI, Michael (ORICA GreenEDGE) 13:33:40 ITA 2 SANTAROMITA, Ivan (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 20 GBR 3 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) GBR 4 YATES, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) RUS 5 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA) + 25 RUS 6 SILIN, Egor (KATUSHA) RUS 7 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA) SLO 8 SPILAK, Simon (KATUSHA) GER 9 MARTIN, Tony (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 27 COL 10 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 34
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