Early escapee Thibau Nys doubles down in the Tour de Romandie mountain stage

Thibau Nys has won the second stage of the Tour de Romandie. The Belgian, who doubled, won the exciting mountain stage from the early breakaway. Fellow escapee Andrea Vendrame and Luke Plapp were second and third on the podium.

After a prologue on day one and a strange sprint on day two, it was the climbers’ turn in the Tour de Romandie on day three. The start of the stage was in Fribourg, the finish 171 kilometers later in Salvan. That finish was on top of the climb of Les Marécottes.

Nys in the early flight
The stage also offered opportunities for attackers. We therefore saw a strong early flight. Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), Mikel Azparren (Q36.5) was the attackers on Thursday.

The leading group can accelerate again
The seven attackers reached the foot of Les Mosses (12.8 km at 4.2%) with a lead of three minutes and 50 seconds. On the second category climb, Flynn and Arndt were released from the front. In the descent, the front runners did not let up the pace, which meant that the two were unable to regain the lead of the race. Meanwhile, Rainer Kepplinger had launched an attack from the peloton, but his attempt led nowhere.

After the descent from Les Mosses, the lead of the five leaders was two minutes and 20 seconds. The escapees had clearly organized well, because in the valley they still had a lot of acceleration in their legs. Their lead increased again and they eventually started the final climb with a two and a half minute lead. That was the tough climb of Les Marécottes (7.6 km at 7.5%).

Leading group or classification riders?
Azparren had to let go in the first kilometer. Nys, Meurisse, Adrià and Vendrame therefore had to hold off the peloton with the four of them. The next to drop out was, somewhat surprisingly, Adrià. The Spaniard had to let the rest of the leading group go four kilometers from the finish. At that moment the attackers still had a minute’s lead. In other words, it was a real nail-biter.

Vendrame still felt good and decided to install a new gear. Meurisse cracked, Nys rode at his own pace again to the wheel of his Italian fellow escapee. A little later, Meurisse was also able to join in again. Meanwhile, the climbers in the peloton had also taken action. It was Simon Yates who opened the debates there, although initially it was mainly a matter of running and dwelling on the classification riders.

Exciting final kilometer
Luke Plapp’s attempt was a better one. The Australian champion rode to the three leaders and then immediately took the lead. Vendrame and Nys had to make every effort to hook up their wagon, but they did so. The three also stayed together in the final kilometer and started sprinting for the win. That sprint turned into a battle between Vendrame and Nys. The latter clearly still had the fastest legs and won by force majeure.

Nys, who is in his first race of the season, not only won the second stage, he also achieved a double. In the background, Florian Lipowitz, who accompanied Plapp for a while, finished fourth. Juan Ayuso took fifth place.