LES DIABLERETS, Switzerland: Chris Froome of Britain extended his Tour de Romandie lead, powering up a rain-hit final climb in the main mountain stage to finish on the wheel of winner Simon Spilak on Saturday.
The Slovak covered the weather-shortened 185-kilometer (115-mile) route to Les Diablerets ski station in 5 hours, 10 minutes. Froome clocked the same time in the next-to-last stage.
Rui Costa of Portugal led the chasing group, finishing 1:03 behind.
Froome leads Spilak, the 2010 Romandie winner, by 47 seconds overall. Costa was third, trailing the Sky team leader by 1:21.
Snow forced organizers to cut a scheduled second climb of Col de la Croix from the stage, with the switch creating an uphill route to the finish.
The final stage Sunday is an 19-kilometer (12-mile) time trial on lakeside roads in Geneva.
Spilak and Froome chased down a small leading group with eight kilometers (five miles) to go, and quickly went clear.
Froome has led since winning the prologue stage on Tuesday, and is a strong favorite to win the six-day race.
The Romandie race has proved a reliable recent form guide to the Tour of France. In the past two years, Froome’s teammate, Bradley Wiggins, and Cadel Evans of Australia both took victory in French-speaking Switzerland en route to cycling’s biggest prize.
Froome extends lead at Romandie; Spilak wins stage
