Primoz Roglic wins the Tour de Romandie as Ackermann wins final stage

Roglic sucessfully defended his lead on the final stage as Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) won the final sprint

The last stage was 181 kilometres from Mont-sur-Rolle to Geneve, that included threethird category climbs. The breakaway went away early and gained an advantage of three minutes over the peloton.

The breakway included Carlos Verona (Mitchelton-Scott), Winner Anacona (Movistar) and Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale).

The peloton was lead by Bora-hansgrohe and Bahrain-Merida while LottoNL-Jumbo looked after race leader Primoz Roglic.

With10 kilometres to go, the peloton caught the breakaway and got ready for a final sprint missing sprint aces Fernando Gaviria, Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors), Michael Matthews (Sunweb), who had already retired.

Bora-hansgrohe and Bahrain-Merida set a high pace on the run-in. Pascal Ackermann (Bora) out sprinted Michael Morkov (Quick-Step Floors) and Roberto Ferrari (UAE Team Emirates) who were second and third respectively.

Roglic arrived safely within the peloton and took overall victory of the race. Egan Bernal (Sky) and last year's champion Richie Porte (BMC), completed the podium.

"I’m speechless. I and the whole team are happy, very happy with this victory", said Roglic after the last stage of the race. "The whole team has done an excellent job this week. This victory is also for my teammates. The boys were very strong and it is a pleasure to work with them and to reward their trust in me with victories."

"I knew I was strong and I was also optimistic, but you still have to do it. That is far from easy. Every day was tough and each stage was decisive. As a team, we have done a fantastic job this week. I can’t express enough how incredibly proud I am of this team."

LottoNL-Jumbo Sports Director Merijn Zeeman commented on the development of Roglic. "He’s with the team now for the third year. His development as a cyclist, as a former ski-jumper, is phenomenal," he explained. 

"It’s a dream for us to see how he develops. As a person, as a cyclist and as a leader of this team. He’s a fantastic person to work with. He has now won two of the most prestigious WorldTour stage races on the calendar with the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Romandie. The way (Steven) Kruijswijk as fellow team leader has put his own ambitions aside for Primoz, is nice to see. This also indicates how good the atmosphere is within the team."

Kruijswijk also scored a top-10 position in the race by finishing in sixth place, two minutes and 32 seconds behind Roglic, after gaining time on the uphill time trial on stage 3.

VIDEO: 2018 Tour de Romandie Stage 5 Highlights

2018 Tour de Romandie Final Classifcation

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 17:09:00 
2 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky 0:00:08 
3 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:35 
4 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:16 
5 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:23 
6 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:02:32 
7 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:02:49 
8 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale   
9 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:03:09 
10 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:03:12

2018 Tour de Romandie Stage 5 Top 10

1 Pascal Ackermann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:09:51 
2 Michael Morkov (Den) Quick-Step Floors   
3 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates   
4 Timothy Dupont (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert   
5 Rudiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe   
6 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida   
7 Benjamin Thomas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ   
8 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal   
9 Michael Albasini (Swi) Mitchelton-Scott   
10 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale