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 yesterday.
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.
Saxo looking to young Pole for Giro spark
Meantime, the Saxo team are hoping highly-thought-of young Polish rider Rafal Majka will finish in the top 15 in the Giro d’Italia which gets underway next Saturday in Naples.
Saxo, one of three teams to announce their line-ups on Saturday, expect great things of their 23-year-old rider, who will be a serious contender for the best young rider title.
“Even if he is very young, we think he is capable of finishing in the top 10-15 overall,” the team said.
Teams:
Saxo: Rory Sutherland (AUS), Mads Christensen (DEN), Matti Breschel (DEN), Karsten Kroon (NED), Daniele Bennati (ITA), Manuele Boaro (ITA), Rafal Majka (POL), Bruno Pires (POR), Evgeny Petrov (RUS)
Euskaltel: Samuel Sanchez (ESP), Jorge Azanza (ESP), Egoi Martinez (ESP), Ricardo Mestre (POR), Miguel Minguez (ESP), Ioannis Tamouridis (GRE)
Pablo Urtasun (ESP), Gorka Verdugo (ESP), Robert Vrecer (SLO)
Lotto: Lars Bak (DEN), Dirk Bellemakers (NED), Francis De Greef (BEL), Kenny Dehaes (BEL), Gert Dockx (BEL), Adam Hansen (AUS), Olivier Kaisen (BEL), Tim Wellens (BEL), Frederik Willems (BEL)
