Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) sprinted to victory on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie and moved into the overall lead ahead of Friday's all-important time trial.
The British all-rounder survived the day's five climbs to earn the right to sprint from a reduced peloton, and made no mistake.
After an attacking finale over the late climb of La Comunal in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Hayter enjoyed a fine lead-out from his team, with Egan Bernal producing a notable turn before Jhonatan Narvaez provided the final launchpad in the final kilometre.
Hayter looked over his shoulder repeatedly before launching a convincing sprint that saw him win by a couple of bike lengths.
The main rivals were climbers and GC contenders, with Spanish youngster Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) taking second place and Romain Bardet (DSM), who had Hayter's wheel in the lead out, hanging on for second place.
With yellow jersey wearer Ethan Vernon dropped on the penultimate climb of the Col de la Tourne, along his Soudal-QuickStep teammate and prologue winner Josef Cerny, the race lead was up for grabs. Hayter, who started the day seventh overall, claimed 10 bonus seconds for the victory and now leads the race by six seconds over Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma).
"Maybe the sprint was not so close but to get there was the hard part," Hayter said. "Jumbo-Visma set a good pace on all the last climbs, and there were quite a lot attacks especially at the end. I survived and did a good sprint. My team hit the front a bit early but I think it was best with all the roundabouts tot stay out of trouble.
"I was just waiting waiting waiting for the guys to come behind, and not to go too early. I saw someone coming and just started to wind up the sprint."
How it unfolded
The third day - but the second road stage - of the 2023 Tour de Romandie took riders on a 162.7km route that started in France and crossed into Switzerland, racking up 3172 metres of elevation gain over five main climbs around La Chaux-de-Fonds.
The opening 75km tracked largely flat roads and saw the formation of a three-man breakaway featuring Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Tom Bohli (Tudor Pro Cycling), and Gleb Brussenskiy (Astana Qazaqstan). Antoine Aebi (Swiss national squad) tried to bridge across but never made it.
The climbing began with the tough Basset ascent - 7.6km at 7.6% - where Bernard was first to the top and Jumbo-Visma set a strong pace in the peloton. Shortly afterwards, they crossed the finish line for the first of three times before heading out to tackle the Comunal climb - 1.67km at 7.6% - that would be key to the finale later on.
Bernard led the race over both climbs to extend his lead in the mountains classification and the trio came around to the second passage of the finish line after 110km ridden and 52km to go with a lead of just under two minutes.
They set almost straight out for the draggy climb of the Col de la Vue des Alpes - 5.4km at 4.6% - where Bohli was unable to hold the wheel and the breakaway dropped to two, with Bernard again taking maximum KOM points.
After a fast descent, it was out for the Col de Tourne - 4.6km at 7.1% - where Jumbo-Visma piled on the pressure through Robert Gesink to both catch the breakaway and thin the bunch significantly. Vernon and Cerny lost contact there, along with sprinters like Giacomo Nizzolo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers). By the summit, there were 25km to go and 60 riders left in the bunch.
After 10km or so, it was time for the last of the day's climb, the second ascent of La Comunal. Gesink continued to lead onto it but Jumbo-Visma hesitated when the road kicked up and the attacks came immediately, with Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) dragging a small group clear. Steven Kruijswijk found himself on the front ahead of Foss but the Jumbo decided to dire Thomas Gloag across to mark the move.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) then accelerated from behind to drag a splitting peloton back by the top of the climb. Kruijswijk and Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) were among the key riders to be distanced but they kept in sight and rejoined for the descent.
The run-in was downhill, then uphill, then flat, and Gino Mader (Bahrain Victorious) used that late kicker with 5km to go to launch an attack, followed later on the flat by efforts from Ayuso and Tony Gallopin (Trek-Segafredo).
However, with 2km to go, Ineos put a lid on things and gave Hayter an armchair ride to a sprint victory and the yellow jersey.
Results
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