2023-04-26 18:17:43
Ethan Vernon FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
Briton Ethan Vernon won in the sprint on the first stage of the Tour de Romandie, between Crissier and the Vallée de Joux.
The young Briton Ethan Vernon (Soudal-Quick Step) won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie in a sprint on Wednesday between Crissier and the Vallée de Joux, taking the command of the general classification from his teammate Josef Cerny.
The 22-year-old sprinter beat 20-year-old Belgian Thibau Nys on the line, finishing ideally the work of his teammates, who had toughened up the race and brought him up to the front, thus offering a second success to his team, the Soudal-Quick Step, after the prologue removed Tuesday by Cerny. “Getting back in shape is great”, rejoiced the young Briton, also a track rider, who had won two stages last year on the Tours of Catalonia and Slovenia and then had experienced health problems.
In this event where the final victory can be played out in a handful of seconds, the peloton long led by Ineos had let five fugitives go but never gave them more than 2 min 45 in advance, taking them back far from the finish.
Romain Bardet finished 4e
Romain Bardet came for a very unusual fourth place in a massive sprint, he who still had heavy legs from Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Tuesday and is mainly aiming for the big mountain stage on Saturday.
“We worked well to be in front today (Wednesday), I was well placed with Oscar (Onley) 100 meters from the finish so I followed. It feels good to find races where there is a little less tension in the peloton and everything is clearer. It’s true that there was a very nice climb in the middle of the stage and it went up at a decent tempo, it eliminated a lot of sprinters. Honestly, it was harder than I thought. We see day by day. I’m still trying to recover well from last week, we take what there is to take. » explained the Frenchman at the end of the day’s stage.
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