Tadej capped off his first Tour de Romandie in grand style. To his wins in stages 1, 2, and 4, he added 1st place in the final stage 5 from Lucens to Leysin (178.2 km). Once again, his UAE Team Emirates – XRG teammates did an outstanding job, making sure the breakaway didn’t get too far away.
The peloton had practically caught them by the start of the final climb to Leysin (14.3 km, 5.9%), where riders from Bahrain Victorious took control, aiming to bring their leader Lenny Martinez into a good position. However, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) attacked first. The German accelerated 3.2 kilometers from the finish, Tadej followed, and then tried a jump of his own.
Even so, the two strongest riders in the 79th Tour de Romandie rode together into the finale. Primož Roglič also wanted to get involved in the fight for the stage win, but his teammate Lipowitz launched the final move the moment the two-time Tour de Romandie winner (2018, 2019) joined the front. It turned out he had gone too early, as Tadej first covered his acceleration and then beat him convincingly.
»It was a tough day, Bahrain came to help us, they wanted to go for the stage as well, and fight for the GC. It was good for us, a hard pace all day and then on the climb, Florian attacked first and he did a really good job, but luckily I could survive on his wheel and he launched really early, and then it was a fight to the finish line,« said Tadej.
He won the yellow jersey 42 seconds ahead of Lipowitz, and Lenny Martinez also made the podium, 2:44 back. »It’s a WorldTour stage race that suits me. I’ve admired it since I was young; I’ve seen many of Primož’s victories. On TV everything looked very nice; I always wanted to race here, experience Romandy and win,« Tadej answered when asked what his first victory at the Tour de Romandie means to him.
With it, he equaled Ferdinand Kübler’s 1951 record with four stage wins. »Every win is important, but the most important thing is that I finish the job for my team,« Tadej said about the winning streak in Switzerland. With it, he increased this season’s win tally to 9 after just 11 racing days.
Before the Tour de Romandie, he competed only in the biggest one-day races and celebrated victories at Strade Bianche, Milano–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, while he finished Paris–Roubaix in 2nd place. Judging by the results in the past week, the switch to stage racing caused him no difficulties. »I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m satisfied,« added Tadej.
His next test will be the Tour de Suisse from June 17 to 21. Before that, he will take a few days off, but he will also recon the key stages of this year’s Tour, before which altitude training still awaits him.