Dorion Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) took his second win of the week at the Tour de Romandie to round out the race with another triumph on a wet day out in Vernier.
The Frenchman outpaced Simone Consonni (Lidl-Trek) and Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty), going long to get the jump on his rivals in the reduced bunch finish.
After ascending to the race lead on Saturday's stage 4 to Leysin, Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) secured the overall victory to take the first stage race victory of his career. The Spaniard beat Bora-Hansgrohe Aleksandr Vlasov and Florian Lipowitz by seven and nine seconds respectively to seal the win.
The day was always likely to be one decided by the fast men, even with seven ascents of the 1.6km Dardagny climb lying in wait on the largely circuit-based final stage.
Attacks flew at the front after the break of the day was brought back inside the final 30km, but things came back together as the likes of UAE Team Emirates, Lidl-Trek, and Visma-Lease A Bike controlled the peloton for the final dash to the line.
In the end, the riders those teams had hoped to set up were caught behind as the final bend loomed, and it was instead Godon who launched himself from the front to take a largely uncontested win.
Further back in the 67-man group, Rodríguez crossed the line safely with the overall victory and the best young rider prize in the bag. Godon's win saw him overhaul Decathlon AG2R teammate Andrea Vendrame for the points jersey, while Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck) came away with the mountain classification win.
How it unfolded
The final stage of the 2024 Tour de Romandie would take the riders on a 151km route based on four laps of a hilly 35km circuit in Vernier. The main challenge of the day would be the 1.6km, 4% climb of Dardagny, coming three times during the stage, though nothing likely to trouble the main GC names – aside from potential time bonuses at the top of the general classification.
The day began with a strong breakaway going early as Rémi Cavagna (Movistar) jumped from the flag. He was quickly caught but was soon off again after 20km of racing. The Frenchman was joined in the attack by Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost), Marco Brenner (Tudor), and Alexandre Balmer (Swiss National Team).
Counter-attacks from Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) and Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease A Bike) didn't disrupt the move, and so the quartet got away up the road with a gap of two minutes.
Behind them, Ineos Grenadiers kept things on a tight leash on behalf of new GC leader Carlos Rodríguez, while Lidl-Trek were also up there working to keep the time gap at two minutes.
It would be a hard task for the breakaway to stay away to the line with the fast men of the peloton keen to contest the final stage victory of the race, and so it proved as the peloton closed in to under 1:30 as the riders hit the final 60km.
Cavagna wouldn't be resigned to the breakaway's fate, however, and sought to push on alone. The 'TGV from Clermont-Ferrand' pushed on alone with 46km left to run, leaving his break mates behind as he went in search of a 14th career victory.
He'd be alone for 15km before Rafferty and Brenner came back up to him for the final ascent of Dardagny. There, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) went on the attack from the peloton, causing a split as riders behind sought to shut things down.
The break would be brought back just inside the 30km to go mark, with Cavagna unsurprisingly being awarded the final combativity prize of the race for his efforts. More attacking came soon after, though, with former race leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) among those on the move, even if the move came to nought.
The final 20km saw Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) on the move, though the pair were unsuccessful in their efforts. Martin and Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost) would make moves inside the final 10km, but with Lidl-Trek taking charge for stage 2 winner Thibau Nys, it would all come down to the final sprint finish.
The sprint to the finish was a disorganised one, however, with Nys and several other key contenders caught too far back to affect things at the front.
In the end, it was Godon who had the perfect run around the final bend, accelerating away from his rivals to close out his Tour de Romandie with a second stage victory.
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