28/04/2024

Carlos Rodriguez holds onto overall victory in chaotic final stage of 2024 Tour de Romandie as Dorian Godon sprints to second stage win

Carlos Rodriguez has held on to secure overall victory at the 2024 Toru de Romandie after a chaotic final stage that saw Dorian Godon sprint to his second stage win of the race.

Four riders got themselves into the day's breakaway and it was a strong group too. Remi Cavagna of Movistar Team, Darren Rafferty of EF Education-EasyPost, Marco Brenner of the Tudor Pro Cycling Team and Alexandre Balmer riding for the Swiss National Team, being the four leaders. With just over 40km to go though, Cavagna had had enough of the company and attacked clear solo.

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With 26km to go, all the breakaway had been caught, as counter-attacks from the peloton accelerated things. After attacks from the likes of Juan Ayuso and Florian Lipowitz among others, the next rider to gain a notable gap was Felix Grossschartner of UAE Team Emirates.

The high pace and the wet roads were proving a dangerous combination with a number of riders sliding out and hitting the deck on a descent. Taking advantage of the chaos, Michael Valgren and Michael Hepburn attacked off the front and got themselves a gap. With 8km to go however, a Team Visma | Lease a Bike led peloton successfully caught them back in.

Despite a couple of other attackers trying their luck, it was a bunch sprint that decided the day. With no real sprint trains it was a frantic finale but in the end, it was Dorian Godon, raking his second stage win of the race who powered to victory ahead of Simonne Consonni.