After his third place on the previous day, Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) sprinted to victory in the third stage of the Tour de Romandie, between La Neuveville and Charmey; putting himself within one second of the race lead. The Spanish rider was the fastest of a diminishing peloton at the end of the tough, uncategorised climb to the finish of the hilly 157.6km stage, as the overall contenders for the race fought it out once more.
Gianni Meersman (Lotto-Belisol) also improved two places on the previous day’s result, as he took a close second behind Sánchez. The Belgian raised his arm in protest as he crossed the line, claiming that the Spanish rider had closed the gap to the barriers a little, but the sprint was judged to be clean. Amstel Gold winner Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) matched his result of stage one, with third place.
Ten seconds bonus on the line meant that Sánchez moved to within a single second of race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), who crossed the line safely in the peloton behind the fight for stage victory.
“Even after that tough luck in the first stage when I couldn’t join in the sprint because of a broken spoke, the team kept on working for me,” said Sánchez afterwards. “Today everything worked out well.
“The team was really strong again and there was no bad luck in the sprint,” he explained. “It was definitely very hard and very close, but I am glad that I could clinch it for the guys and the hard work they did.”
The stage was characterised by a five-man breakaway from Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Gatis Smukulis (Katusha), Leigh Howard (GreenEdge), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Belisol), and Anders Lund (Saxo Bank), who escaped almost as soon as it had begun.
Howard was best placed overall, at 3’43” behind Wiggins, and was virtual race leader for some time, as the group’s lead grew to 5’50” in the middle of the stage. Team Sky, along with Lampre-ISD, Garmin-Barracuda and Rabobank steadily closed it down though; although Smukulis made a solo bid for glory, the race was back together as the Latvian struggled up the final climb with less than five kilometres to go.
There were several attacks in the closing kilometres, notably from eighth placed Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda), Simon Spilak (Katusha) and Roman Kreuziger (Astana), and the Janez Brajkovic (Astana), but these were all closed down by Team Sky and Rabobank, who set up Sánchez to take his third victory of the season.
The break goes early again but Sky keeps it under control
Brammeier, Smukulis, Howard, Van der Sande and Lund escaped after just ten kilometres and, after 45km were 4’40” ahead, putting the Australian in the virtual race lead. The lead rose to 5’06” as they began the 3rd category climb to Arrisoules, but over the top after 59.9km it was back down to 4’36”.
Over the rolling kilometres that followed the gap was to rise again, where it reached its maximum of 5’50” after 100km. On the 2nd category climb to Le Chatelard it began to drop but, as the peloton reached the lower slopes, there was an attack from Andriy Grivko (Astana) et Matthew Lloyd (Lampre-ISD).
The two counterattackers were pursued by Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and at the summit, after 102.8km the peloton was 4’27” behind the five leaders, with the three-man ‘chasse patate’ thirty seconds ahead.
With 40km to go the gap was down to four minutes and, with Lloyd back in the peloton, Lampre-ISD came to the aid of Team Sky at the head of the peloton. The lead began to go out again, although Gautier and Grivko were picked up with 37km to go.
Europcar and Rabobank took over at the front with 34km to go, but the gap was still almost four minutes to the five-man break. On the 3rd category climb to Treyvaux, with 33km to go, it had come down a little, but at 30km to go it was still 3’33” so Lampre-ISD, then Team Sky took over on the front once more.
Howard was still in virtual yellow, but this was to change over the next few kilometres. Rabobank and Garmin-Barracuda came to help Team Sky at the front, stringing out the peloton on the flat valley roads, and the gap to the leaders began to tumble. With 20km to go it was still 2’41” however, meaning that the men in front still had a chance of staying away.
At the intermediate sprint in Bulle, with 17.8km to go, the quintet was little more than two minutes clear, so Smukulis decided to leave the rest behind and go it alone.
Behind, in the peloton, Kevin Dehaes (Lotto-Belisol) came down in the middle of the road as he hit a low signpost in the middle of the road. Luckily, he was near the back of the peloton, and nobody else came down, but the Belgian took some time to get up.
The peloton closes the break down as the final climb approaches
Two Rabobank riders, and two from Garmin-Barracuda, were pulling the peloton into one long string but, with 10km to go, Smukulis still led by 1’46”. The other four riders were just 18 seconds behind the Latvian, as Brammeier set off in pursuit, with Van Der Sande in tow; Howard and Lund chased back up to them, but Brammeier kicked again.
The Irish champion was bearing down on Smukulis as the final climb began with 8km to go, but the other three caught up and passed him on the early slopes. The Katusha rider was in sight on the straight road, but was still climbing strongly, and the final gap was proving difficult to close.
With 7km to go, with the gap down to little over a minute, Saur-Sojasun took over on the front and began to bear down on the four chasers; streaking past them with 5.5km to go. Smukulis was still 16 seconds up ahead but, with five kilometres to go Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Barracuda) broke free in pursuit.
The American was not to stay away for long however, as Richie Porte led the Team Sky train past him, catching Smukulis with 4.4km to go.
Fabrice Jeandesboz (Saur-Sojasun) was the next to go, having been aggressive in the hills in previous days, but his attack was quickly overcome but one with 3km to go from Roman Kreuziger (Astana) and Simon Spilak (Katusha), who managed to escape.
As it had done on previous days though, Team Sky calmly pulled them back, but as they were caught with two kilometres to go Janez Brajkovic (Astana) jumped away. The Slovenian’s move was only to last a few hundred metres, with Team Sky and Rabobank pulling him back.
The two teams were keeping the pace high, confounding a final kilometre attack from Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM). Rabobank took over into the finishing straight, launching Sánchez towards the line; the Rabobank rider appeared to lean on Meersman a little, close to the right hand barrier, and the Belgian put out his hand in protest as the Spanish rider sat up to celebrate.