24/04/2024

Dorian Godon continues AG2R's excellent start to season with victory ahead of Andrea Vendrame in one-two finish at Tour de Romandie

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team's Dorian Godon has sprinted to victory on stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de Romandie ahead of teammate Andrea Vendrame to continue the team's incredibly successful start to the season.

After an initial fight in the early part of the day, a very strong six-man breakaway eventually formed. Included in the lead group were notable names such as Fausto Masnada (Soudal - Quick-Step), Patrick Gamper (BORA - hansgrohe), Rune Herregodts (Intermarché - Wanty), Juri Hollmann (Alpecin - Deceuninck), Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa - B&B Hotels) and Joey Rosskopf (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team).

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With 76km still to go, prologue winner and general classification leader, Maikel Zijlaard was worryingly dangling out the back of the peloton, seemingly in trouble and at risk of being dropped completely from the bunch.

As the final lap of the 40km-ish course began, the leaders still held just over two minutes advantage over a peloton that was yet to fully open up the chase. As the trio of Richard Carapaz, Jan Christen and David Gaudu attacked the bunch on a little rise though, that gap was dented largely. Although the trio were caught, the upping of pace had seen the number of riders left in the peloton dwindle dramatically.

With the break within sight at just under 10km to go, Julian Alaphilippe attacked from the peloton. Although he bridged the gap to the break, the bunch were not letting the Frenchman go any further. In the end, all the attack did was bring things all back together at the front.

Despite more attacks coming in the final kilometres, including from notable names such as Andreas Kron and Jan Tratnik, a group of around 50 riders came together into the finale for a sprint finish. In the rush for the line, it was Dorian Godon who opened things up and no one could come around the Frenchman with his teammate, Andrea Vendrame giving a one-two finish.