Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) soloed to victory on the stage 4 summit finish of the Tour de Romandie at Thyon 2000, racing into the overall lead in the process.
The British rider was given free rein to attack in the closing kilometres of the 2000-metre mountain after teammate and race leader Juan Ayuso dropped 8km from the line. He jumped from an elite lead group at 4km to go as he sought to overhaul a 12-second gap to new virtual race leader Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar).
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was the strongest man in pursuit of Yates, going solo in the chase, while Jorgenson tried to limit his losses at the head of a smaller group further back.
The damage was done, however, and Yates crossed the line 21 seconds up on Jorgenson in fifth place to take the yellow jersey ahead of Sunday's final stage. Pinot took second at seven seconds down, while Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) rounded out the podium at 19 seconds.
"It was a really good performance by the team," Yates said after the stage. "We said from the beginning that we'd try to help Ayuso hold onto the jersey for as long as possible. He really earned the right to wear it the last couple of days after a serious injury, so we did all we could to help him.
"He said already himself that he's still coming back to shape, so when he gave me the go-ahead to go, I tried and just pushed all the way to the line. A great performance from the team and I'm very happy.
"Like I said, [Ayuso] is a young guy and such a big talent. For sure he's going to win some big races in the future. He said to me at maybe 6km to go, 'Adam, you can try for the win', and from that moment on I did my best to win.
"All week we've been riding really well. One more day to go so hopefully we'll hold onto it tomorrow. It's just nice to win. I've had some bad luck in the last couple of races – I had a big crash in Catalunya and had some time off to recover and prepare again and here we are. Super happy."
Yates now takes a 19-second overall lead heading into the final stage, a flatter affair, into Geneva. Jorgenson lies second with Caruso eight seconds back in third place. An impressive ride by DSM youngster Max Poole sees him in fourth overall at 28 seconds, while Pinot is fifth at 41 seconds.
How it unfolded
The penultimate stage of the Tour de Romandie brought the peloton to the queen stage of the race and Hors Categorié summit finish of Thyon 2000 (20.9km at 7.6%), where the overall victory would certainly be decided.
The battle for the break raged from the very start of the day, with the largely flat run to the second climb of the day at Anzère (14.6km at 6.9%) seeing 10 men eventually go clear at the head of the race.
UAE Team Emirates controlled the peloton pacemaking for race leader Juan Ayuso while prologue winner Josef Cerny (Soudal-QuickStep) was joined out front by Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Lawson Craddock, Chris Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Dstny), among others.
KOM leader Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) also made the move and duly picked up the maximum points at the opening third-category climb, as well as Anzère and the next climb at Lens shortly after.
When the riders hit the flat ground on the way to the midway mark of the stage, the break had made it three minutes up the road, with UAE keeping control ahead of the final two ascents of the day.
By the time the riders hit the first-category test at Suen (14km at 6.6%) just under 60km from the line, the break had 3:30, while Groupama-FDJ also began to contribute to the work in the peloton.
On the climb itself, meanwhile, an upping of the pace saw Bernard, Hermans and three others drop away to leave five men up front at the top – Craddock, Juul-Jensen, De Gendt, Cerny, and Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-Hansgrohe). De Gendt led the move over the top, with the peloton closing to within two minutes.
On the way down, Harold Tejada attacked from the peloton as his Astana Qazaqstan teammate Andrea Garofoli dropped back from the breakaway. They wouldn't make it to the final climb, however, with the peloton sweeping them up again at 23km to go.
At the base of the climb to Thyon 2000, the peloton moved to 1:40 back on the break as Juul-Jensen, Zwiehoff, and De Gendt pushed clear at the front. In the peloton, Israel-Premier Tech climber Michael Woods was unlucky to go down after tangling with another rider just prior to the start of the climb.
Juul-Jensen went clear at the front with 17km to go, while further back the moves and counter-moves kept coming even as the peloton closed to within a minute. The attacking would all come to nothing, though, as the peloton made the catch with 12km to go as Jayco-AlUla took over the work at the front.
Riders dropped away from the peloton as the high pace continued on the way towards the summit, and as DSM took over the pacemaking for Romain Bardet inside the final 10km, a real selection was made.
At 8km to go, race leader Ayuso was dropped, the young Spaniard not yet on top form at his first race of the season. Second-placed Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar) and fifth-placed Adam Yates and his UAE Team Emirates teammate Rafał Majka remained in the lead group, however, along with Bardet and his teammate Max Poole, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) also up there.
Bardet kicked off the attacking at 7km to go with a couple of moves, though neither he nor Carr could break clear with their accelerations. Dunbar, Jorgenson, and then Bardet again tried to get away as the riders hit the final 5km, with those moves provoking splits in the group.
Yates took it up on the front heading into the final 4km, getting away from Bardet, Jorgenson and Poole while Caruso, Pinot and Uijtdebroeks battled back to the chasing trio. The group couldn't match Yates' pace, though, as the Briton opened up a nine-second gap heading into the final 3km of the climb. Pinot put in a decisive attack of his own a kilometre later, leaving the rest of the chasers behind with a fierce acceleration.
Back in the chase, Jorgenson led the way as he sought to limit Yates' advantage, with 12 seconds between them at the start of the day, while Pinot plugged away in a lone pursuit. Yates had too much for the Frenchman and Jorgenson, however, staying away to celebrate his second win of the season.
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