Tour de Romandie stage 4: Michael Woods wins dramatic stage, snatches GC lead

Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) won a dramatic, rainsoaked stage of the Tour de Romandie on Saturday.

Woods went into the final 50 meters of the grinding Thyon summit finish locked together with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). Just as the Welshman was making what looked to be his winning move, his hand slipped from the brake hood of his bicycle and he came crashing to the ground.

Thomas remounted his bike a few seconds later to finish disappointed and dumbfounded in third-place after Ben O’Connor (Ag2r-Citroën) rode past him while he was on the floor, grabbing second on the stage.

“I had no feeling in my hands and I tried to change gear but instead I just lost the bars,” Thomas said after the stage. “It’s so frustrating because even if I had just stayed in that gear and come second … but to deck it there, I feel like a whopper. I’m fine, it’s just frustration after such a hard day to lose it like that at the end … it’s really frustrating.”

Geraint Thomas aka la grande guigne #TDR2021 pic.twitter.com/5AX6eHQgM5

— Greg Ienco (@GregIenco) May 1, 2021

The result sees Woods move into the yellow jersey after overnight race-leader Marc Soler (Movistar) was distanced in the final flurry of attacks. Thomas now sits second overall, 11-seconds back, with just a 16km time trial remaining Sunday.

Woods had hit out with little over four kilometers remaining on the 20km Thyon mountaintop finish, drawing out O’Connor and then Thomas from the diminished GC group.

Thomas bridged across to Woods as the Canadian looked to be fading while O’Connor dangled close behind. Thomas pulled the lead pair much of the way through the final 2km and looked poised to take the stage win, only for a slippy brake hood to foil his chances as Woods took his second win of the season.

“I was close several times and really felt like a big win was coming, and this certainly was it,” Woods said. “I’m really proud of how I raced today,”

“I didn’t want to take the jersey the way I did, and for ‘G’ to go down, but it’s really cool to be wearing the [leader’s] jersey tomorrow,” he continued. “It’s not enough time for me [i.e., 11 seconds on GC]. Those guys can roll a time trial so well, so I’m just going to enjoy being in the jersey now and hopefully I can have a good TT tomorrow.”

It's an incredible finish at #TDR2021. @GeraintThomas86 crashes in the final metres of the queen stage.

He still remounts to take third over the line and remains in a strong GC position heading into tomorrow's TT. pic.twitter.com/KEabQwvFff

— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) May 1, 2021

Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) was distanced in the final and finished 13th on the stage.

Foul weather dictates the day

Like Friday, rain poured on the peloton through the day. Organizers had already made the call to bring the stage forward by two hours in a bid to beat the worst of the weather, though conditions forced officials to make a mid-stage decision to neutralize the final descent of the day.

https://twitter.com/INEOSGrenadiers/status/1388465574783692800

With a break of six still up the road, riders were led down the top three kilometers of the descent by cars, which attempted to maintain the escape’s time gap before restarting racing. Despite commisaires’ best-efforts to hold the four-minute breakaway margin, the escape gained almost two minutes during the neutralization in an error that could have impacted the overall.

Ineos Grenadiers pick up the pulling, deny Cort the GC

Final breakaway rider Magnus Cort (EF Education Nippo) rode into the final 10km with still around 4 minutes of a gap on the peloton after being gifted some two minutes by the botched neutralization.

However, with Ineos Grenadiers sitting two-three on the podium with Thomas and Porte at the start of the day, Rohan Dennis started pulling hard on the front, eating into Cort’s advantage. The Dane was eventually reeled in after a long day off the front that could have miraculously landed him the leader’s jersey.

Both @EddieDunbar and Rohan Dennis have pulled over after taking their turns.

Just @GeraintThomas86 and @richie_porte remain in this select group – ascending through the gloom at #TDR2021 pic.twitter.com/rClO4hpoy9

— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) May 1, 2021

Froome dropped on penultimate climb

Chris Froome was dropped on the penultimate climb, losing ground on the peloton before many of the sprinters were detached. The Israel Start-Up Nation captain had started the day around 24-minutes down on GC.