The queen stage of the 2024 Tour de Romandie was in the hands of the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, after being the strongest on the 151.7 kilometer route between Saillon and Leysin. The Olympic road champion remained ahead of the German Florian Lipowitz in the final meters and achieved his second victory of the season after the one obtained in the Tour Colombia.
The Spanish Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) entered third and took the leader’s jersey from his compatriot Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), who lost a lot of ground in the final part and finished in 11th place, 44 seconds behind the winner.
As for other Latin riders, the Colombian Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) had an outstanding performance, entering sixth place after doing a great job for his teammate Carlos Rodríguez. Another of those who arrived with the best was another Colombian, Iván Ramiro Sosa (Movistar Team), reported in box 17th at 1:32.
After the time trial on Friday, the fourth stage had the mountains as the protagonist with the climb to Leysin as the final judge (13.4 km at 6.1%), which was definitive in selecting the group of favorites.
In the early stages of the race, Nelson Oiveira (Movistar), Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Bart Lemmen (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) attacked. They were joined a little later by Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Josef Cerny (Soudal Quick-Step) and Dorian Godon (Decathlon AG2R), who had to go through the Ovronnaz (9.1 km at 9.5%) , the first climb of the day.
At the close, Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) tried it alone, but INEOS Grenadiers took command of the peloton in Les Rives (9.6 km at 5.4%), a second category climb and prevented that the Frenchman distanced himself.
However, Berthet’s advantage over the peloton was very limited. Thanks to the pursuit of Thymen Arensman, the Decathlon AG2R rider reached the top of Les Giettes (4.1 km at 8.3%) with a lead of one minute and twenty seconds. This was the penultimate climb of the day, with the summit 45 kilometers from the finish line. On that same slope, Luke Plapp had to let the other favorites go.
On the journey to the final climb, Berthet held firm, but with just a minute lead, it was an impossible mission to stay ahead of the favorites. Still, he bravely defended himself. The peloton, led by Ineos, approached little by little and five kilometers from the finish, the French runner’s adventure ended.
Minutes later, Egan Bernal attacked and immediately opened a gap with his rivals. Ayuso did not have an immediate response. While Rodríguez saw that his compatriot was struggling and went to the wheel of the Colombian, who worked tirelessly for the Spaniard. Ayuso recovered and was able to catch them, as were Pavel Sivakov, Richard Carapaz, Aleksandr Vlasov, Florian Lipowitz, Enric Mas and Ilan Van Wilder.
About three kilometers from the end, Lipowitz changed pace and only Carapaz and Rodríguez were able to follow the surprising German. While Ayuso couldn’t keep up and stayed.
With less than 2,000 meters to go, Carapaz attacked and stepped on the accelerator. The Ecuadorian stayed ahead of his rivals, but a few meters from the finish he saw the German Florian Lipowitz approaching him, however, the German could not pass him and entered behind the South American.
Tour de Romandía 2024 (2.UWT)
Results Stage 4 | Saillon – Leysin (151,7 km)
| 1 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education – EasyPost | 4:06:03 |
| 2 | Florian Lipowitz | BORA – hansgrohe | ,, |
| 3 | Carlos Rodríguez | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:10 |
| 4 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | 0:14 |
| 5 | Aleksandr Vlasov | BORA – hansgrohe | ,, |
| 6 | Egan Bernal | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:27 |
| 7 | Ilan Van Wilder | Soudal Quick-Step | 0:31 |
| 8 | Tao Geoghegan Hart | Lidl – Trek | 0:40 |
| 9 | David Gaudu | Groupama – FDJ | 0:41 |
| 10 | Cristián Rodríguez | Arkéa – B&B Hotels | 0:44 |
Ranking General
| 1 | Carlos Rodríguez | INEOS Grenadiers | 12:22:46 |
| 2 | Aleksandr Vlasov | BORA – hansgrohe | 0:07 |
| 3 | Florian Lipowitz | BORA – hansgrohe | 0:09 |
| 4 | Ilan Van Wilder | Soudal Quick-Step | 0:21 |
| 5 | Juan Ayuso | UAE Team Emirates | 0:27 |
| 6 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | 0:38 |
| 7 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education – EasyPost | 0:49 |
| 8 | Lenny Martinez | Groupama – FDJ | 0:52 |
| 9 | Tao Geoghegan Hart | Lidl – Trek | 1:02 |
| 10 | Egan Bernal | INEOS Grenadiers | 1:23 |