The riders began the Tour de Romandie with a solo effort, and they concluded the Swiss race in the same way on Sunday. Over a seventeen-kilometre course in Geneva, Rémi Cavagna and Stefan Küng tried to seize this last opportunity, but the Frenchman and the Swiss man had to settle for ninth and tenth places respectively in the stage, won by Remco Evenepoel.
Exactly 17.1 kilometres remained to be covered to complete the 2025 Tour de Romandie. The day after the summit finish in Thyon 2000, the closing time trial was to determine the overall standings, but also provided a chance for victory for some riders. “It was a very varied course, but the specialists could still have their word to say,” explained Anthony Bouillod. “There were 3,6 very technical kilometres at the start, then five very flat and fast kilometers along the lake, an uphill/downhill section, then the round trip along the lake to finish with another technical section.” After their teammates Clément Davy and Enzo Paleni covered the route, Rémi Cavagna and Stefan Küng, both ambitious for the day’s stage, set off seven minutes apart shortly after 2 p.m. The former two-time French champion came at the first intermediate checkpoint, located after eleven kilometers, ten seconds behind the best time. He ultimately crossed the line just one second behind the provisional leader. “Rémi probably lost a bit of time on the technical section, which explains this gap at the intermediate point, but he made up for it in the second part,” said Anthony. “I think I managed it pretty well since I finished quite strong,” explained the TGV de Clermont-Ferrand. “It’s quite satisfying from that point of view, even if I’m not yet quite close to the best”.
“The frustration quickly disappeared”, said Anthony Bouillod.
A few minutes later, his Swiss teammate Stefan Küng crossed the finish line with the same time, despite having set the provisional best time six kilometers earlier. “Stefan crossed the checkpoint with the same time as Price-Pejtersen, but he wasn’t able to increase his lead after that,” summarized Anthony. “I think he didn’t quite have the legs to win, which was clearly the goal today. You can sometimes have regrets about technical errors, but today there was also about the legs. He might have paid a bit for his day in the breakaway on Friday and he wasn’t able to give his best today. He was frustrated at the finish as it was still a close call, but the gap grew after that, so that frustration quickly disappeared.” World time trial champion Remco Evenepoel ultimately won the day’s event, while Joao Almeida took the overall classification. “Given that we weren’t in the mix for the overall, the goal for the other riders was to take advantage of the day to have a good session on the time trial bike in preparation for the Giro, to get their bearings, but without taking any risks,” Anthony added. “Because you really had to commit and be aggressive in the first part if you wanted to set a good time today.” The Corsa Rosa is now lying ahead.
