Tour de Romandie 2023 – Ethan Vernon (Soudal Quick-Step) wins the 1st stage in the sprint

The young Briton Ethan Vernon (Soudal-Quick Step) won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie in a sprint on Wednesday between Crissier and the Vallée de Joux, taking the command of the general classification from his teammate Josef Cerny. After 170 km of effort, the 22-year-old sprinter beat 20-year-old Belgian Thibau Nys on the line, ideally ending the work of his teammates and confirming the spring upturn of the Soudal-Quick Step, after the prologue removed the watch by Cerny and the victory of Remco Evenepoel on Sunday over Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

“Getting back in shape is great“, rejoiced the young Briton, also a track rider, who had won two stages last year on the Tours of Catalonia and Slovenia and then had experienced health problems. Keeping his yellow jersey promises to be difficult on Thursday, with a second stage cumulating 3,200 meters of altitude difference, “but if not, we have other cards to play in the team”, he relativized with the RTS.

Romain Bardet, the French leader of the DSM, came to seek a very unusual fourth place in a massive sprint, he who still had heavy legs from Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Tuesday and is above all aiming for the big mountain stage on Saturday. In this event where the final victory can be played out in a handful of seconds, the peloton long led by Ineos had let five fugitives go but never gave them more than 2 min 45 in advance, taking them back far from the finish.

If the three difficulties of the day – the climbs of Mauborget and Fontanezier in the second category and that of the Mont d’Orzeires, col of the third category – were placed too early to prevent a sprint, they nevertheless skimmed the contenders for the stage victory like the final victory.

To the abandonments at the start of the stage of the British Simon Yates (BikeExchange), sick, and the Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), positive for Covid-19, were added those of Mark Cavendish, dropped in the first reliefs, and Rui Costa , who completed the prologue on Tuesday almost 5 minutes behind the leaders after breaking his pedals, while Fernando Gaviria was left behind. Thursday, the battle for the general should engage in the 162.7 km very hilly between Morteau and La Chaux-de-Fonds, before the time trial on Friday and the queen stage in the mountains on Saturday between Sion and Thyon 2000.