He expected to be attacked, and he certainly was, but Romain Grégoire showed remarkable resilience on the first mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse this Wednesday. After he was dropped on the Splügenpass, at an altitude of over 2,000 metres, the young Frenchman took advantage of the following long descent to get back in the mix. Although he was unable to catch Joao Almeida, who delivered a strong solo, he finished with almost all of his GC rivals and kept the yellow jersey after this fourth stage, while also securing fifth on the day.
The Tour de Suisse entered a new phase on Wednesday. After three first stages favouring the punchers/sprinters, a real pass was on the menu on stage 4. A long, 35-kilometre ascent was supposed to take the riders to the summit of the Splügenpass, at an altitude of 2,114 metres, after a final nine-kilometre portion averaging nearly 7.5%. Following this, a long descent to the finish in Piuro had to be covered, and many riders wanted to take advantage of the particular profile of the stage to give it a go. The first two hours were thus ridden at an average speed of 52 km/h. “There was tailwind for the first 150 kilometres,” explained Romain. “Everyone wanted to put someone in the breakaway, both the leaders’ teams and those aiming for the stage, so it was a fight for almost two hours without anyone being able to make a difference.” “We came on the Tour de Suisse with the goal of winning stages, and this was one of the stages we were aiming for,” added William Green. “We also thought it might be interesting to have a rider up front to help Romain later in the race. The plan was to be in the breakaway today, and that probably also contributed to these two hours of full gas racing.”
“Romain rode above his limits and exceeded our expectations”, William Green
A group of eight finally managed to break away after about 100 kilometres of racing, but the long uphill portion of the day came not long after. The breakaway’s gap never reached three minutes, and some teams made it hard from the very first slopes. “The peloton was still quite big before the final nine kilometres,” William said. “Stefan, Lewis, Valentin, and Romain were still there.” However, the bunch exploded on the first ramps of the proper Splügenpass. UAE Team Emirates immediately set a furious pace, splits occurred everywhere, and Romain Grégoire had to close one of them to remain with the main favourites. With the yellow jersey on his shoulders, the young man fought fiercely to stay in the first group of fifteen riders, and he did so admirably until the multiple hairpin bends located in the last three kilometres of climbing. Joao Almeida then picked up the pace, and the entire group split apart. From then on, the Groupama-FDJ rider gave his all on his own until the summit, which he reached 1’25 behind the Portuguese rider, and forty seconds behind a group of eight chasers. “Romain rode above his limits and really exceeded our expectations today,” William said. “He really put on a fight, not just on the climb, but on the descent as well.”
On the forty kilometres of downhill, which also included a few flat sections, Romain Grégoire had to keep the pressure on. “As expected, I lost time on the climb, but fortunately I had Julian [Alaphilippe] with me after,” Romain pointed out. “He helped me get out of a difficult situation and it worked out.” With the former double world champion and Lennard Kämna, the rider from Besançon therefore managed to gradually close in on the chasing group, and finally bridged across after twenty kilometres of intense pursuit. At the end of the descent, Joao Almeida still had a lead of around forty seconds, and another race started. “I knew there would be attacks in the last ten kilometers because such a large group couldn’t work together,” said Romain. “I realized that keeping the yellow until Sunday will be complicated, so I had to accept that some people would take time on me. I had to focus on the riders closest to me in the general classification, because my mission today was to keep the yellow jersey. That’s the best thing I could do.” While the group maintained a bit of cohesion at first, Ben O’Connor and Oscar Onley then took their opportunity in the last five kilometres
“Completely dead, but mission accomplished,” Romain Grégoire
Within the second chasing group, Romain Grégoire perfectly covered Kevin Vauquelin’s counterattacks, and eventually crossed the line one minute after Almeida and eighteen seconds after O’Connor. Despite his earlier efforts, he took fifth place on the stage, and above all, he nicely defended his jersey. “I’m completely dead, but mission accomplished,” said Romain with a smile. “It wasn’t easy, it was even tight, but it worked! I’m in yellow tonight, and that’s the most important thing.” “We can’t have any regrets,” William said. “Romain did a maximum climb and a maximum descent. It’s a very impressive ride from a very skilled rider. For sure he had a target on his back today; it was always going to be challenging, and he gave it everything today. Every day we’re wearing yellow is an achievement for Romain and for the team. We certainly lost time to Almeida, one of the best climbers in the world, but we can be satisfied with what Romain did today on a true mountain stage.” In the general classification, the French puncher still leads by 25 and 29 seconds on his compatriots Vauquelin and Alaphilippe respectively. He now is 56 seconds ahead of O’Connor, and 2’07 of Almeida. On Thursday, he’ll need to handle nearly 4,000 metres of elevation gain to continue the yellow adventure. “I’m going to rest well, and I’ll only think about tomorrow’s stage tomorrow,” Romain concluded.
