Tour de Romandie (st. 1)

Sepúlveda -7th into short field's sprint-, Betancur -on the attack, now 5th overall-, Anacona all inside 20-man leading group at end of Romandie's stage one.

Slovenian Primoz Roglic took the victory into an unusual sprint and grabbed the leader’s jersey in the 2019 Tour de Romandie, tackling its first point-to-point stage on Wednesday with 168km of lumpy roads -five Cat-2 ascents plus several short kicks uphill- from Neuchâtel to La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Barely 20 riders stayed into the leading bunch after a fast-paced race and approach to the finale, featuring the Col de la Tourne (Cat-2) as well as some little ascents just before the end. The Movistar Team brought some excitement to its fans and proved to have a solid roster in Switzerland by getting five of its members –Sepúlveda, Anacona, Betancur, Castrillo and Amador- into the bunch after the last climb, with Eduardo, Winner and Carlos still able to hang on in the final hills and with a chance at the 5km-to-go banner.

Following a short-lived move from Sepúlveda, Betancur profited from an acceleration by Geraint Thomas (SKY) inside the last 1,500 meters to gain a beautiful advantage, which wasn’t, though, enough to hold off the bunch into the sprint. Sepúlveda took 7th place as Betancur and Anacona climbed up the standings for 5th and 10th, all three Blues within half a minute from Roglic.

The TDR will offer a chance to the sprinters in Morges on Thursday (174km) before the final short hills to Romont on Friday and, most importantly, the demanding weekend with mountains (Torgon finish on Saturday) and time trial (Geneva, on Sunday).

Cover picture (c): Heinz Zwicky / BettiniPhoto