Today’s fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie featured a category one mountain top finish of about 12 kilometers or so, these finishes can really put serious time on any rider not up to par (Jan Ullrich) or not feeling so great (Paolo Savoldelli). As it often happens in pro cycling the day started with “the early break” and as usual the rider who was away since the first 25 kilometers of the race was caught with about 5 kilometers to go.
Chris Horner was attentive for nearly the whole race with team mate Cadel Evans with him however the American rider could not hang out for the last 5 k’s as the attacks came at lightning speed. While Alejandro Valverde looked amazing as he attacked up the mountain it was the Liberty Seguros rider Alberto Contador who really stole the show (along with the win and the over all lead). I have heard of Alberto a bit over the last few years but this was the first time I had seen the rider win. He climbed like the mountain was not even their! Amazing how fast these Spanish riders up the mountains.
Dam near all the major teams are trying to put Horner into trouble in hopes of dropping the American, with only seconds separating the top 4 or 5 riders the general classification was really up for grabs. Oscar Sevilla who riders for T-Mobile managed to breakaway with about 5 kilometers to go and quickly put about 10 to 12 seconds between himself and the rest of the group. However he was brought back when Contador unleashed this perfectly timed attack.
Contador won the stage by around 30 seconds (as I write this nothing is posted online as the race just ended minutes ago), it’s was enough for the over all lead. Horner came in about a minute past the Contador and will live to fight another day.
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