Tour de Romandie #5: Merhawi Kudus climbs with the best

Chris Froome (Team Sky) won the 4th stage of the Tour de Romandie, crossing the line a few seconds ahead of Ion Izaguirre (Movistar) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ). Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was able to retain the overall race lead.

After numerous attacks in the first 30km of the 4th Tour de Romandie stage, 11 riders finally managed to go clear of the peloton. Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka were represented by Cameron Meyer in the big break and they rode to a 2’00” lead just before reaching the first of 3 category 1 climbs on the day.

It was on this climb, the Col des Planches where 3 of the original breakaway riders attacked while Meyer and the others returned to the peloton. This is how the situation would remain for some time as Movistar controlled the peloton. Our African Team were riding to place Merhawi Kudus (pictured above) in a good position and then it was up to our young Eritrean to test his legs on the two final climbs.

As the riders reached the penultimate cat 1 climb of the stage, attacks came from the peloton which eventually caused the break to be caught and the main bunch to be drastically reduced. Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Tejay van Gaardren (BMC Racing) were the 2 riders who got the jump on the main group. They bridged the gap to the 2 remaining early leaders but soon pressed on ahead without them. Kudus followed the tempo being set by the Movistar team in the group of favourites and going over the top of the Barboleusaz, the peloton was down to just 30 riders, Kudus and Kanstantsin Siutsou included from our African Team.

The rain started to come down on the descent toward the final climb and it was at this point in time where the battle for the yellow jersey intensified. Kudus did well, following the moves right up until 4km to go where he then got distanced. Up the road, Froome was clearly on a good day as he left Van Garderen behind and rode away to a good stage win. The yellow jersey group followed just 5 seconds after Froome while Kudus was the next rider in, taking 17th on the stage.