Stefan Küng (BMC) gave the Tour de Romandie its second home stage winner in the space of two days as the Swiss rider got the better of Andriy Grivko (Astana) in a two-up sprint at the end of Thursday's stage 2, which was shortened due to snowy conditions.
Küng and Grivko were the last survivors of the day's four-man breakaway, and their almost slow-motion final sprint – along with the fact they had escaped the clutches of the peloton in the first place – gave an indication of the exertions of what must have been a miserable day in the saddle.
Grivko led under the flamme rouge but soon Küng was ushered through to the front. He didn't panic and calmly led the way on the drag to the line before upping his effort in the final few hundred metres. Grivko was in the wheel but simply didn't have the strength to come round and mount a serious challenge.
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Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Merida) finished third as the peloton, which had already swallowed up the other two members of the break – Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal) – crossed the line 20 seconds down. Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) was safely in there to retain his overall lead in the race, with no change to the top of the general classification.
"I think the other guys suffered more than me. I think a 50kg climber suffers more than me in conditions like that. I know the roads here and I knew the last climb, so I told myself to go for it,” said Küng, who took a stage win at Romandie in his neo-pro season two years ago.
"I knew that I had to be first in the last corner. The finish rose slightly and so that helped me at the front. I've been practicing my sprint with Greg Van Avermaet for the Classics and that boosted my confidence for winning a sprint like that.”
How it happened
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