Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) showed flashes of his old self as he took the second stage of the Tour de Romandie, which started and finished in Romont as the main group caught a breakaway just before the line. The ‘Piccolo Principe’ shot out of the pack on the final uphill drag to the finish, just as a three-man group was caught by a speeding Cadel Evans (BMC Racing). The former World champion found himself trapped against the barriers just as Cunego accelerated though, and could only manage second place, with Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) taking third.
“The big objective was a stage victory and it’s done,” said Cunego after his victory. “I’d like to thank the whole Lampre team, who performed their role on this undulating stage; it was very difficult to control and there were a number of attacks.”
Cunego’s victory was only possible after the three-man group of David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo), Rui Costa (Movistar) and Mikael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale) had been caught; Cunego was quick to credit the teammate, who had done the work here.
“It was Simon Spilak [the winner of last year’s edition of the race – ed] who plugged the gap; I thank him; and behind, I managed a nice sprint.”
It was another wet and windy day in Switzerland, but the early kilometre of the undulating 172km stage were peppered with attacks and escape attempts.
The first move that looked like working came after 21km when Tom Stamsnijder (Leopard Trek) and Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) managed to get 25 seconds clear; the move was only to last for 10km though, only for the next attempt to go.
Pierre Rolland (Europcar) was constantly trying to escape on the second category climb to Esmonts, after 81km; he was unable to do so but his constant activity allowed teammate Christophe Kern to get away on the descent. Kern was soon followed by Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale), who caught him at the 103km point, and the two Frenchman were allowed some freedom.
By the summit of the next climb, the second category Côte de Dompierre after 95km, Kern led the peloton by 2’25”, with Bouet not far behind him. Once the two riders got together they managed to pull out a maximum advantage of 2’55” after 121km. After the previous day’s miscalculation though, where Pavel Brutt (Katusha) was able to take the stage and the race lead, the peloton was in no mood to let too wide a gap open up.
Katusha, BMC Racing and Liquigas-Cannondale were the principle workers in the chase and by the 20km to go point, as the first category climb to Le Gibloux began, the breakaway was over.
Almost as soon as Kern and Bouet were captured, Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad) attacked, and was followed by Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas-Cannondale). They only managed to get a few seconds clear though, and Szmyd was none too keen to come around and help, and so were soon back in the fold.
Astana now began to lift the pace on the front, which had the effect of stringing out the peloton and thinning it out considerably. Race leader Pavel Brutt (Katusha) was one of the first casualties of this increased pace; the Russian lost contact early on and was paced by teammate Vladimir Karpets. The yellow jersey was steadily slipping off his shoulders though, unless he could make up some time on the descent that would follow.
As Roman Kreuziger (Astana) led over the top, the front group had been reduced to around fifteen riders, with many of the race favourites visible, including Vinokourov, Evans, Cunego and Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC).
The next to attack was Thomas Rohregger (Leopard Trek) with 10km to go; the Austrian rider was joined by Peter Stetina (Garmin-Cervélo) and a few others before it was closed down by the Lampre-ISD team.
Stetina tried again but, after he was shut down once more, teammate Tom Danielson put in a big effort and managed to get away.
Meanwhile, Brutt was 1’16” behind with 7km to go; most of the Katusha team was with him, but they were making little progress.
Danielson was chased down by Evans, and the next to try his luck was Dario Cioni (Sky). The Italian had just a few metres over the chasers with 5km to go but was determined to make this move work.
Just after he passed under the 5km banner, Cioni was joined by David Millar (Garmin-Cervélo), Mikael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale) and Rui Costa (Movistar) and the four riders looked to have got a good gap over the group.
Seemingly impatient, or worried about the others in a sprint, Millar tried to go it alone with 3km to go; for a while the other three fugitives seemed to be looking to one another and he pulled out a lead. Costa was the first to make it across, at the final kilometre banner, but was quickly followed by the other two.
Cioni was struggling to close the last few metres to the others though and, as the final sharp climb to the line began, he was distanced.
Just as it looked as though the three of them would be fighting out the victory between them the front of the peloton suddenly hoved into view with Evans at its head. The Australian looked as though he may have been on his way to a stage victory himself but, just as he was passing between Cherel and the barriers, the Frenchman moved over and accidentally baulked the former World champion.
Just as this happened, Cunego burst down the middle of the road in a way reminiscent of the speed he displayed early in his career. With Evans almost stationary there was no one to get close to the Italian and he took an ecstatic victory well clear of the rest.
Evans managed to recover his momentum enough to take second place, two seconds behind, just ahead of Vinokourov; despite being in the break, Costa managed to join the sprint to take fourth, ahead of Movistar teammate David Lopez.
Brutt was finally led across the line by his team 1’20” behind Cunego, but had done just enough to protect his yellow jersey from the attentions of the Italian, who now trails by just 38 seconds.