Bradley Wiggins has lost his yellow jersey to Luis Leon Sanchez after the Spaniard sprinted to a second consecutive victory on stage four of the Tour of Romandie.
The British champion is now nine seconds behind Sanchez on GC, with tomorrow’s closing stage, an individual time trial, likely to decide the race in a gripping finale.
Each of the top three riders on GC is a noted time trialist, as is defending champion, Cadel Evans, 30 seconds back.
Sanchez has on three occasions been national time trial champion of Spain; Wiggins claimed the silver medal at last year’s world time trial championships, and his teammate, Michael Rogers, third on GC, seven seconds behind his team leader, is a three-time world time trial champion (2003, 2004, 2005).
Team Sky rode strongly in today’s Queen stage, a mountainous 184km from Bulle to Sion. Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas put in a strong shift in support of Wiggins, before abandoning the race with 50km to go.
Ritchie Porte, winner of the Volta ao Algarve, delivered another strong performance in defence of Wiggins’ leaders’ jersey. But in a repeat of stage one, claimed by Wiggins in a sprint finish, and yesterday’s third stage, where the Londoner joined the sprint to defend his GC interests, he was again prominent in a final selection.
Sanchez outsprinted Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Branislav Samoilav (Movistar) for his second straight victory. The Spaniard has also won a stage of Paris-Nice this season.
Rabobank directeur sportif, Nico Verhoven, said overall victory for Sanchez was far from certain.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how tomorrow will go for Luis Leon. He has ridden very strongly on a similar course in the past, but it so happens that this season his time trial is not yet optimal.
“But even if we don’t win this race, it’s already been very successful for us. And naturally we are all hoping for a surprise,” he said.
Tour de Romandie stage four – result
1) Luis Leon Sanchez (SPA) – Rabobank – 4.56.13
2) Rinaldo Nocentini (ITA) – AG2R-La Mondiale
3) Branislav Samoilav (BLS) – Movistar
4) Gorka Verdugo (SPA) – Euskaltel
5) Paolo Tiralongo (ITA) – Astana
6) Pierre Rolland (FRA) – Europcar
7) Andreas Kloeden (GER) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
8) Cadel Evans (AUS) – BMC Racing
9) Roman Kreuziger (CZE) – Astana
10) Fabrice Jeandesboz (FRA) – Saur – Sojasun
General classification
1) Luis Leon Sanchez (SPA) – Rabobank – 17.36.35
2) Bradley Wiggins (GBR) – Team Sky +9″
3) Michael Rogers (AUS) – Team Sky +16″
4) Bauke Mollema (NED) – Rabobank +18″
5) Stef Clement (NED) – Rabobank
6) Andrew Talansky (USA) – Garmin-Barracuda +20″
7) Wilco Kelderman (NED) – Rabobank
8) Simon Spilak (SLO) – Katusha +21″
9) Rui Costa (POR) – Movistar +22″
10) Tiago Machado (POR) – RadioShack-Nissan-Trek
