Tour de Romandie: Patrick Bevin best of the bunch on stage 3

Patrick Bevin (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 3 of the 2022 Tour de Romandie in a reduced bunch sprint.

The New Zealander, who recently won the Tour of Turkey, was the best positioned into the final straightaway after a 90-degree turn, and was able to open the winning sprint from the center of the road early and hold it for the win.

With the stage win and time bonus, Bevin moves into second overall on the general classification.

This was the first WorldTour win for the Israel-Premier Tech in the 2022 season.

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), who won the previous stage and the opening prologue, finished second.

Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) secured his lead for another day by taking third on the stage, earning a time bonus to further pad his overall race lead.

How it happened

With 70km to go, the break including Remí Cavagna (Quick-Step), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), and Nans Peters (AG2R-Citroën) had more than four minutes advantage.

The three worked well, however, the pursuit shaved about 90 seconds from the advantage over the following 30km.

Ineos-Grenadiers and Jumbo-Visma were on the front to bring back the trio, and with these teams’ pacing, the margin dropped further to just 1:30 at 20km to go before the penultimate climb of the stage.

Another minute was shaved from the gap in the following 2km, and with 20km remaining, the big bunch was breathing down the escapees’ necks at just 20 seconds back.

Thomas Champion (Cofidis) lost his grip on the KOM jersey, and fell off the back, while the peloton brought the three at the front of the race back into the fold at 19km to go.

Andre Amador was again on the front of the bunch, again with help of Magnus Sheffield and Lucas Plapp (all Ineos Grenadiers), while Dennis in the leader’s jersey marked his former teammates and kept close watch on them.

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) went to the front of the race to press the pace and also offer shelter to road captain Dennis. Kruijswijk was closely marked by Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who was trying bring Hayter into good position.

Movistar’s Carlos Verona attacked at 10.5km to go, and this exploded the group on the front. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) also responded at the front of the peloton.

With one kilometer to the top, Verona had an eight-second gap before he blew up and was brought back.

It was then Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe), Thomas, and Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) who attacked, with Mark Hirshi (UAE team Emirates) making a move. Dennis covered this move to protect his lead on the descent and the 7km run-in to the finish.

At 5km to go, no team had control of the front of the race, with fewer than three-dozen riders in the reduced main group.

The race lead constantly swapped in the final twisty 4kms, until Rein Taaramäe (Intermarché-Wanty Gober-Matériaux) attacked without a response.

Neilsen Poweless (EF Eduction-EasyPost), Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), and Thomas then went to the front to sort out the final kilometer and bring back Taaramäe.

Taaramäe was brought back just before the final, twisting kilometer, and teams tried to set up for the final straight, just 300m before the line.

Coming out of the final turn, Bevin was in the center of the road and marked by stage 2 winner Ethan Hayer (Ineos Grenadiers) and overall leader Dennis.

The Australian kicked and was the best across the line to take the stage win.