Omar Fraile took Astana’s 14th victory of the 2018 season after he beat beat Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) on stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie. Fraile went long on the run-in to the line Delémont and held off the Italian with Rui Costa taking third.
Astana have enjoyed a strong start to the season and dominated last week's Tour of the Alps. The Kazakh team looked determined to do something today and Dario Cataldo launched a brief attack near the top of the final climb with 11 kilometres remaining.
They had a second bite of the cherry after bringing back a number of late attackers in the final two kilometres with Fraile opting to kick out as they rounded the final corner. The Spaniard's surge of pace caught Colbrelli by surprise, who might have assumed he was the fastest rider remaining in the dramatically reduced peloton, and he quickly nudged in front of the Bahrain-Merida rider.
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"I am so happy with this win," Fraile said. "After the Classics I did not feel great, but today everything went well and I managed to do a good stage. In general, our team was super today, we did a strong race. After all these climbs we still had many riders in the leading group and my teammates did a big job for me."
Colbrelli did his utmost to overhaul Fraile, but the frenetic finish had taken its toll and he had to settle for second place. He fared better than race leader Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), who was distanced on the final climb, leaving Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) in perfect position to take control of the general classification. He is equal on time with Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing) while Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) sits in third place at four seconds.
"In the final part of the stage I realized our group can come to the finish for a sprint, so Dario Cataldo and Jakob Fuglsang worked hard to chase all attacks and to bring me in front," Fraile explained. "I knew Sonny Colbrelli was my biggest rival today since he is a very fast guy. So, I followed his wheel and started my sprint with around 300 meters to go.
How it happened
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-romandie-2018/stage-1/results
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