Lorenzo Fortunato risks it all with late attack to win a stage of Tour de Romandie: "I said to myself: Either I win or I arrive last"

The 2025 is becoming the year of XDS Astana Team. After a success of Wout Poels at 2.Pro Tour of Turkey on Wednesday, Lorenzo Fortunato "one upped" his more experienced teammate by scoring the team's first WorldTour victory in stage two of Tour de Romandie.

"I feel good. Today was tough because Soudal - Quick-Step started pushing from the start and the whole group was waiting for Remco Evenepoel to attack on the last climb. We were about twenty riders left and in the end I'm happy to have managed to win the stage," he told Cycling Pro Net afterwards.

It's been almost exactly two years since Fortunato's last professional victory. Back in 2023, he was crowned the overall champion of Vuelta Asturias (2.1). Fortunato's biggest victory remains a Giro d'Italia stage win at the mythical Monte Zoncolan all the way back in 2021.

In a group with faster men like Lennert Van Eetvelt and Junior Lecerf, not many would bet on the small Italian to add to those palmares. Maybe not even himself. "Yes, I didn't expect it," he admits. This is also important day for XDS Astana. Despite their great start of 2025, Fortunato is only their first winner at WorldTour level this year.

With the way today's stage played out, the primary focus was to regain some positions in GC after a time loss in opening prologue, Fortunato explains: "The first goal today was to gain time in the rankings, then I got to the end and said to myself 'Either I win or I arrive last' and I won. This is my first Tour de Romandie and I like it as a race, it's really beautiful. Now I want to do well on Saturday, finish well here and go to the Giro d'Italia to win a stage."

"The goal for XDS Astana is to stay in the WorldTour. We are 19th but we are slowly getting closer, so we have to continue like this. It's my first victory in the Astana jersey, I'm really happy and I dedicate it to the team, my teammates, my family and my wife Veronica. I'm really happy."