Richie Porte (BMC Racing) overturned Simon Yates' 19-second lead in the final time trial at the Tour de Romandie to seal his first overall title in the Swiss race.
Porte covered the 18.3km course eight seconds slower that stage winner Primož Roglic (LottoNl-Jumbo), but with Yates (Orica-Scott) finishing 40 seconds down on the BMC rider it was more than enough for Porte to take his second WorldTour stage race of 2017. With the Tour de France just over two months away, Porte's win was a shot across the bows for his Grand Tour rivals.
Porte's Romandie challenge began with a mediocre result in the prologue. With heavy rain and slick roads covering the 4.8km course he took a cautious approach and lost valuable time, but on the Queen stage to Leysin he proved himself to be the best climber in the race. While Yates won the two-up sprint between the pair, the manner in which Porte cut across a 45-second gap to the Orica rider before driving the pace defined his week.
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"It's a massive shock, to be honest. I didn't think that I'd be able to claw that much time back after the prologue," Porte said in his post-race press conference.
"I tip my hat to my teammates firstly for all the work they did, but also Yates. He's a super talent. He rolled me yesterday in the stage so it was sweet to get the victory. He won the battle but I won the war a little bit there. It's nice to keep the momentum rolling for July," he added.
Romandie is of course just one race, but Porte's growing momentum is clear. He was the only GC rider capable of attacking on the final climb during stage 4, while Chris Froome (Team Sky) and another batch of Tour hopefuls were dropped.
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