The general classification did move and now has several favorites at the top, but a clear favorite still does not appear as a rival to beat in the three remaining stages.
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was confirmed as Colombia’s best card. The Zipaquereño remained strong in the main group and dropped a total of 47 positions to jump to 18th place with only 34 seconds of difference over the new leader who is the Belgian Thibau Nys of Lidl-Trek.
With 3.3 kilometers to go, Andrea Vendrame (AG2R) went on the attack followed by a handful of riders interested in the stage victory. Nys stuck to the Italian’s wheel and was involved in a head-to-head battle that ended with both battling to cross the finish line first at the Les Marécottes port, where hundreds of fans came to enjoy the spectacle of world cycling.
While Nys and Vendrame faced each other for the victory of the day, Egan Bernal was fighting to stay in front of the main group. Aleksandr Vlásov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) tried to create cuts in the hardest part of the climb, but the ‘capos’ of other teams responded at the height and prevented big differences from being created in the general classification.
The battle for the title will then be postponed to the next two days. This Friday there will be a 15-kilometer individual time trial and on Saturday the queen stage will be held with five mountain passes, including a first-class high finish arriving in Leysin after 159 kilometers of effort.
With his jump in stage 2, Egan Bernal becomes the best Colombian overall and the country’s great hope to fight for a place on the podium, which would be a great result in preparation for the Tour de France.
Hard ‘low’ for Colombia in the Tour de Romandie
Unfortunately, all the news was not good for Colombia this Thursday. The Astana team reported on their social networks the abandonment of Santiago Umba, who had been leaving good feelings at the start of the race.
“By decision of the team’s medical staff, our Santiago Umba will not be able to start today’s stage due to infectious bronchial asthma”, reported the Kazakh squad minutes before taking the game in Freiburg.
General classification – Tour de Romandie (stage 2)
1. Thibau Nys (Lidl Trek) – 7:55:32
2. Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R – at 4′’
3. Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) – at 22”
4. Enric Mas (Movistar) – at 26”
5. Lenny Martinez (Groupama FDJ) – at 27”
6. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) – at 27”
7. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) – at 28”
8. Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling) – at 29”
9. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) – at 29”
10. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) – at 29”
18. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) – at 34”
29. Iván Ramiro Sosa (Movistar), at 45”
31. Harold Tejada (Astana), at 53”
43. Rigoberto Urán (EF Education) at 1’18”
