Cycling: Marcel Kittel (Etixx – Quick-Step) has won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie. The 27-year-old prevailed in the sprint on the stage, which was shortened due to snowfall, against Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE). Yesterday's prologue winner Ion Izagirre (Movistar) defended his overall lead.
Marcel Kittel is already building up form for the Giro in 10 days - On the first stage of the Tour de Romandie to Moudon, Kittel once again proved his qualities in the sprint and gave the competition no chance in the final. It is already the eighth win of the season for the man from Erfurt, who is likely to be the top favorite in the numerous sprint stages of this year's Giro d'Italia (for preview) will go.
Due to heavy snowfall on the Col d'Etroits, today's stage was shortened from 167 to 109km and the flatter profile undoubtedly played into Kittel's cards in the final. The Belgian Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal) was the dominant man for long stretches of today's stage: after less than five kilometers he already broke away from the field as a soloist and held his position at the top until 13km from the finish. A great performance by the 30-year-old.
In the final, the in-form Swiss Michael Albasini almost managed to dupe the sprinters and their teams: Completely surprisingly, he jumped 400m before the end of the line and tore a small gap to the rest of the field. But people behind them reacted quickly and so Marcel Kittel and Niccolo Bonifazio managed to catch up with this year's runner-up from Lü-Ba-Lü about 50m before the finish line. Spaniard Ion Izagirre, who won yesterday's opening time trial, defended his overall lead ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin). Tomorrow the first mountain finish awaits and the hard stage with three categorized climbs will shake up the overall classification.
Tour Locations | Driver | Country | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Marcel Kittel | Jer | Etixx - Quick Step | 02:27:46 |
2. | Niccolo Boniface | Eng | Trek-Segafredo | |
3. | Michael Albasini | Swi | Orica GreenEdge | |
4. | Tosh Van Der Sande | Call us | Lotto Soudal | |
5. | Ramunas Navardauskas | According to | Cannondale Pro Cycling | |
6. | Davide Cimolai | Eng | Lampre-Merida | |
7. | Samuel Dumoulin | From | AG2R La Mondiale | |
8. | Enrico Gasparotto | Eng | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | |
9. | Kristian Sbaragli | Eng | Dimension Data | |
10. | Ilnur Zakarin | Rus | Team Katusha |
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