Chris Froome won the 5th and final stage in this year’s Tour de Romandie, with a dominant performance in today’s final time trial event in Neuchatel.
In addition, the British rider’s performance today also wrested the leader’s jersey from Simon Spilak – to claim the overall race title.
Race Highlights
With one second separating him from Spilak, Froome set about today’s 18.5 kilometer hilly time trial course with conviction, subsequently setting the fastest time of 24:50 – to beat world time trial champion Tony Martin by a mere second and Jesse Sergent by eight seconds.
Despite finishing 28 seconds behind in today’s ITT event, Spilak managed to hold onto second place in the overall general classification.
Meanwhile, world road race champion Rui Costa secured the final spot on the podium in third place.
Today’s victory marked Froome’s second consecutive win in the Tour de Romandie, and the third consecutive victory for Team Sky after Bradley Wiggins won the event in 2012.
Froome expressed his excitement following today’s time trial victory and the overall title by saying:
"I’m really happy to have this result. Spilak is not a time trial specialist like Tony Martin and I’m happy to have beaten him today. It was a close race. I didn’t feel confident, it was flat out and so it wasn’t easy."
"This year was a different race; there were no hilltop finishes, so it made the race different. The time trial was extremely hard; on a very tough circuit but I think the climb was good for me. But with one second to gain on Simon Spilak it was really difficult. He was strong in the mountains the other day and I wasn’t sure how it would go. I’m just so happy to be back in the yellow jersey. It’s a great feeling."
"This has been difficult period for me, I had a chest infection and problems with my back, it’s not been easy but I’ve worked really hard to get back to this level. I’m really happy and now I just hope I can build on this to the Tour de France."
Stage 5 Results
GBR 1 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) 24:50 GER 2 MARTIN, Tony (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 1 NZL 3 SERGENT, Jesse (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 8 COL 4 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 15 ESP 5 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) + 20 AUT 6 ZOIDL, Riccardo (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 29 SLO 7 SPILAK, Simon (KATUSHA) POR 8 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 31 FRA 9 PINOT, Thibaut (FDJ.fr) + 35 SUI 10 FRANK, Mathias (IAM CYCLING) SWE 11 LUDVIGSSON, Tobias (GIANT-SHIMANO) + 36 ESP 12 HERRADA LOPEZ, Jesus (MOVISTAR) LTU 13 NAVARDAUSKAS, Ramunas (GARMIN SHARP) + 37 AUS 14 DENNIS, Rohan (GARMIN SHARP) + 38 ESP 15 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR) + 40 AUS 16 MEYER, Cameron (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 42 DEN 17 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 43 ITA 18 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA) NED 19 CLEMENT, Stef (BELKIN) + 44 FRA 20 PERAUD, Jean-Christophe (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 45 RUS 21 CHERNETSKI, Sergei (KATUSHA) + 46 USA 22 TALANSKY, Andrew (GARMIN SHARP) + 49 FRA 23 ROY, Jérémy (FDJ.fr) + 51 ESP 24 CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS, Jonathan (MOVISTAR) + 1:01 RUS 25 SILIN, Egor (KATUSHA) + 1:04 FRA 26 ROUX, Anthony (FDJ.fr) + 1:07 SUI 27 HOLLENSTEIN, Reto (IAM CYCLING) + 1:08 AUS 28 BOBRIDGE, Jack (BELKIN) + 1:09 EST 29 KANGERT, Tanel (ASTANA) FRA 30 GENIEZ, Alexandre (FDJ.fr) + 1:10 POR 31 SANTOS SIMOES OLIVEIRA, Nelson Filipe (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 1:13 BEL 32 MONFORT, Maxime (LOTTO BELISOL) + 1:14 POL 33 MAJKA, Rafal (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 1:15 SWE 34 KESSIAKOFF, Fredrik Carl Wilhelm (ASTANA) + 1:21 RUS 35 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA) + 1:25 CAN 36 TUFT, Svein (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 1:26 IRL 37 ROCHE, Nicolas (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 1:31 FRA 38 BOUET, Maxime (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 1:32 AUS 39 HEPBURN, Michael (ORICA GreenEDGE) + 1:37 ESP 40 LOPEZ GARCIA, David (SKY)
Final General Classification GBR 1 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) 16:18:46 SLO 2 SPILAK, Simon (KATUSHA) + 28 POR 3 FARIA DA COSTA, Rui Alberto (LAMPRE – MERIDA) + 1:32 SUI 4 FRANK, Mathias (IAM CYCLING) + 1:44 ITA 5 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA) + 1:48 ESP 6 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR) + 1:52 DEN 7 FUGLSANG, Jakob (ASTANA) + 1:56 ESP 8 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) + 2:07 ESP 9 HERRADA LOPEZ, Jesus (MOVISTAR) + 2:15 FRA 10 PINOT, Thibaut (FDJ.fr) + 2:31 USA 11 TALANSKY, Andrew (GARMIN SHARP) + 2:38 AUT 12 ZOIDL, Riccardo (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 3:29 POL 13 MAJKA, Rafal (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 3:32 COL 14 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 3:50 SUI 15 REICHENBACH, Sébastien (IAM CYCLING) + 5:30 SUI 16 WYSS, Marcel (IAM CYCLING) + 5:32 POR 17 CARDOSO, Andre Fernando S. Martins (GARMIN SHARP) + 6:44 COL 18 ATAPUMA HURTADO, Darwin (BMC RACING) + 7:24 IRL 19 ROCHE, Nicolas (TINKOFF-SAXO) + 7:30 BEL 20 BAKELANTS, Jan (OMEGA PHARMA – QUICK-STEP) + 7:37
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