Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) broke away to win the second stage of the Tour de Romandie on Thursday, as Primoz Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo) retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
De Gendt was part of a four-man breakaway on the 174km ride from Delemont to Yverdon-les-Bains, on the shores of Lake Neuchatel.
The 31-year-old then found himself alone with 25km remaining, four minutes ahead of the pack, and saw out the victory, leaving Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) to win a sprint for second place.
“We were planning it already two weeks ago, my teammate Campenaerts and I,” said De Gendt. “We had a nice group so we went full until the first intermediate sprint. I knew I had a big chance. If we went just 400 watts the whole day I had a big chance for victory.”
“The last 10km I was dying inside,” said De Gendt. “I knew I had the victory but still you need to go to the finish. It took forever.”
Friday’s third stage will be a 9.9km individual time-trial at Villars-sur-Ollon, much of which will be uphill.
Tour de Romandie 2018 – stage 2 results (Delémont – Yverdon-les-Bains):
| 1 | Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) | 4:03:05 |
| 2 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) | +02’04” |
| 3 | Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 4 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 5 | Michael Mørkøv (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 6 | Xandro Meurisse (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 7 | Diego Rosa (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 8 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 9 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 10 | Antoine Duchesne (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
General classification after stage 2:
| 1 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | 8:14:25 |
| 2 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) | ,, |
| 3 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | +04” |
| 4 | Diego Rosa (Team Sky) | +05” |
| 5 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 6 | Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +08” |
| 7 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | +10” |
| 8 | Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 9 | Pierre Rolland (EF Education First-Drapac) | ,, |
| 10 | Richie Porte (BMC) | +13” |
