Thomas takes Tour de Romandie Victory at final Individual Time Trial
Geraint Thomas made up for his fall yesterday by powering through the closing time trial on Sunday to take overall victory in the Tour de Romandie
A day after falling off his bike meters from the finish line, Thomas slowed on trickier sections late in the stage but still finished third, 17 seconds behind the winner Remi Cavagna.
Michael Woods, who held an 11-second lead after winning on Saturday, finished 28th, a minute and 11 seconds behind Cavagna and dropped to fifth overall.
Thomas claimed his first victory in a stage race since 2018, when he won the Tour de France.
“I’m very happy, especially after the little mishap yesterday which wasn’t ideal and definitely made it more of a challenge today,” said Thomas. “I would have loved to have gone for the stage but that last descent was a bit wet so it was just take it steady and finish the stage.”
“Felt good, reminded me of when I won the Tour,” he said.
In the 2018 Tour, Thomas finished third in a time trial on the penultimate day to seal victory.
“A similar sort of stage,” said Thomas. “The last descent with the team on the radio telling me to take it easy, don’t do anything stupid, don’t crash on the corners, and then obviously overthinking a bit.”
Richie Porte, also of Ineos Grenadiers, was fifth on the stage to take second overall. Fausto Masnada of Deceuninck-Quick-Step finished third overall.
Geraint Thomas is targeting the Tour de France this year which starts June 26th after the Criterium du Dauphine at the beginning of June.
2021 Tour de Romandie Stage 5 Top 10
1 Rémi Cavagna (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:21:54
2 Stefan Bissegger (Swi) EF Education-Nippo 0:00:06
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:17
4 Ilan Van Wilder (Bel) Team DSM 0:00:18
5 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:20
6 Fausto Masnada (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:21
7 Mattia Cattaneo (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:29
8 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:34
9 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:35
10 Filippo Ganna (Ita) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:37
2021 Tour de Romandie Final General Classification Top 10
1 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers 17:59:57
2 Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers 0:00:28
3 Fausto Masnada (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:38
4 Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:39
5 Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-up Nation 0:00:43
6 Ben O’Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroën Team 0:00:45
7 Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Astana-Premier Tech 0:01:08
8 Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Team BikeExchange 0:01:22
9 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious 0:01:30
10 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:20