Lenny Martinez out-kicks Joao Almeida in thrilling finale to Queen Stage of the 2025 Tour de Romandie

Bahrain - Victorious' Lenny Martinez has taken the win on the Queen Stage of the 2025 Tour de Romandie, coming out on top of a two-man battle between himself and Joao Almeida on the slopes of the Thyon 2000.

The trio of Ben Zwiehoff (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe), Louis Barré (Intermarché - Wanty) and Julien Bernard (Lidl - Trek) formed the break on the opening climb of the day, the Anzère. Heading into the final 50km though, the time gap to the peloton was hovering around the two minute mark on the cat 1 Nax climb, as the peloton kept the break in relatively close contact.

Zwiehoff, somewhat unsurprisingly after such a busy week for the German, was the first rider to drop away. On the lower slopes of the final climb of the day, it was soon Bernard who was all alone out front as Barre too dropped off the Frenchman's wheel. At the front of the peloton meanwhile, it was Lotto, the team of Lennert van Eetvelt, that was doing the work at the front.

The pace was heaving an effect too as Maillot Jaune Alex Baudin was distanced at around 15km to go. With 13.5km to go, Bernard was then caught. With the pace continuing to cause damage, some more notable names were struggling, with Aleksandr Vlasov dropped from the lead group inside the final 10km.

Another notable point was Remco Evenepoel in full domestique mode for William Junior Lecerf, who was leader on the road after Baudin was dropped. As the White Jersey struggled, Evenepoel dropped back in an attempt to tow his teammate back into contention or at least limit the losses. At the front Joao Almeida himself then turned domestique, leading the front of the GC group with Jay Vine on his wheel and only Lenny Martinez and Lorenzo Fortunato from the rest of the rivals able to keep in contact at 5km to go.

Inside the final 4km though, Almeida and Martinez started to ride clear of Vine and Fortunato. By 2.5km to go, the pair were already 25 seconds clear of their nearest challengers, who themselves were about to have company in the form of INEOS Grenadiers leader and the defending Tour de Romandie champion Carlos Rodriguez.

As Almeida and Martinez started to play a bit of cat and mouse in the final kilometre, the gap to Vine, Fortunato and Rodriguez started to close. The stage win was still going to the lead duo though, and in the end it was Martinez that out-kicked Almeida in the finale.