Tour de Romandie stage 4: Sergio Higuita wins uphill sprint ahead of teammate Aleksandr Vlasov

Sergio Higuita and Aleksandr Vlasov scored a Bora-Hansgrohe one-two at Tour de Romandie on Saturday.

The two team captains emerged from the front of a bunch of GC candidates in a dragging uphill sprint to score Bora-Hansgrohe’s eighth win of the season in what has been a hot season-start for the team.

Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) rode the wheels of teammates Sepp Kuss and Steven Kruijswijk through the huge final uphill drag before proving resilient in the final flurry of attacks.

The Aussie finished just seconds back on the front group and extended his lead on GC by one second after overnight rival Patrick Bevin (Israel Premier-Tech) was dropped.

Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates) took third-place from the group of GC contenders in the final to move up to second overall, 15 seconds back on Dennis.

Vlasov’s finishing kick pushed him up to third in the classification.

🇨🇭 #TDR2022

🏆 VICTORY FOR @HiguitSergio 🏆

… AND SECOND FOR @ale_vlasov! 🥈#BandofBrothers 👊🏼 pic.twitter.com/pCPPiBKs64

— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) April 30, 2022

Saturday’s monster mountain stage went on a slow simmer after the day’s early break went away, and only started splitting apart on the final three-stepped summit finish to Zinal.

The early escape of 12 was left at just three as James Knox (Quick Step), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) dangled around one-minute ahead of the tightly packed bunch at around 20km to go.

Knox was dropped by the top of the first sub-climb and the peloton began piling on the pressure behind.

Kuss and Kruijswijk pulled hard at the front for Jumbo-Visma captain Dennis, and Izagirre and Rodriguez were reeled just ahead of the penultimate ramp at 9km to go.

Einer Rubio (Movistar) tried a skirmish off the front and soon took nearly 15 seconds over the bunch.

Defending champion Geraint Thomas and GC contender Bevin both cracked under the pace as Jumbo-Visma’s tempo split the group to around two-dozen.

Dennis sat poised in Kuss and Kruijswijks’s wheels as Ayuso and Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) shadowing him.

UAE Emirates started pulling for Ayuso at 1500m to go as Rubio continued his resilient solo TT into the headwind. Dennis wasn’t to be shaken by the Emirati team’s pace and rode defiantly on their shoulder.

A flurry of accelerations in the final kilometer didn’t stick in the fierce wind but were enough to reel Rubio in just 300m from the line. Plapp surged first when the escape was neutralized, but couldn’t make a gap, setting up the grinding uphill sprint.

Higuita kicked first before Vlasov countered and nearly shouldered into his Colombian wingman. Vlasov looked to have nabbed the stage, but Higuita held on for his fourth win since joining Bora-Hansgrohe this winter.

The race wraps up with a tough 16km uphill time trial Sunday.

Expect bike changes and climbing chops to play a huge part in whether TT ace Dennis takes the Romandie crown.