Tour de Romandie stage 3: Rohan Dennis crashes out of yellow, Marc Soler solos to win and lead

Marc Soler (Movistar) stole the march on the rest of the GC contenders, soloing to victory on a very wet stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie.

The Spanish rider, who is due to lead Movistar’s Giro d’Italia challenge next week, attacked on the final climb in torrid condition, holding off the chase from the peloton behind to win by 22 seconds and score a 10-second bonus. Magnus Court (EF Education-Nippo) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) held on to sprint for second and third.

Race leader Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers) crashed heavily on slippy roads and was forced to reliquish the yellow jersey to Soler, who now leads the GC by 14 seconds over Geraint Thomas.

https://twitter.com/Movistar_Team/status/1388149925553319937

GC drama unfolds

The third stage of the Tour de Romandie wasn’t meant to cause any changes to the overall classification with only a series of third category climbs to contend with. However, torrential rain and potential disruption to Saturday’s queen stage ensured a dramatic conclusion to the day.

A flurry of attacks came from the GC contenders on the last of the stage’s seven classified climbs, including efforts from Michaele Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma).

Soler launched his move towards the top of the ascent with just under 10 kilometers to the line. Ion Izagirre (Astana-Premier Tech) set off in chase but could not catch his compatriot, who was now in a race against the clock having started the day just 27 seconds off the race lead.

Ineos Grenadiers were initially absent from the chase, with Bora-Hansgrohe and Bahrain-Victorious working to bring back Soler for a sprint finish. It soon became clear why Ineos was missing as cameras banned to a battered and scraped Dennis, with a rip in the right side of his shorts.

It looked for a moment like the Australian might be able to salvage his place at the top of the standings but Ineos had to cut its loses before giving away too much. Dennis was left to ride himself home as Thomas and Richie Porte battled home in the chase group behind Soler.

A day in the big mountains ahead

It’s not over for the general classification riders yet with the queen stage still to come Saturday. The penultimate stage of the Tour de Romandie takes in three Cat. 1 climbs, including a summit finish at Thyon 2000.

However, there is a chance that the peloton will not be able to complete the entire stage with more bad weather predicted for the weekend. The race organizer has already shifted the start of the stage two hours earlier than planned in the hope of finding more favourable conditions.

With so much uncertainty, it could be another very interesting day of racing in Switzerland.