After an impressive attack in the final 15 kilometers of today’s Queen Stage, Jakob Fuglsang finished his solo with his first victory in 2018, already the 15th victory of the season for Astana Pro Team.
– I already tried to attack at the final climb, but going downhill I had to chase and close the gap with the leaders. But luckily halfway the downhill the road went up a little bit and at that point my sports director Dmitriy Fofonov was screaming at me: “Now is the moment!”, but I responded that I was already racing at my limit. But just after that moment I was in the perfect position, just behind the group that was mostly looking at each other, and so I took my chance. I’m really happy with this victory, it gives a really good feeling and a lot of confidence for the start of my preparations for the Tour de France in a few weeks,- told Jakob Fuglsang.
Today was the Queen Stage of the 2018 Tour de Romandie, a 149km-long stage starting and finishing in Sion. With three climbs of the 1st category and two of the 2nd cat., the riders had a hard day on the bike.
At the first four climbs, the peloton was chasing a breakaway of five riders, while from the same peloton more and more riders got dropped as the GC contenders started to pull. At the start of the final climb, the breakaway was caught and it all came down to a small group of riders. Jakob Fuglsang attacked, but got caught and had to chase the four leaders from that point all the way to the top of the climb. In the descent, Fuglsang was able to get back in the leading group. And with 15 kilometers to go, he attacked for a solo finish in the streets of Sion.
With his stage victory, Jakob Fuglsang climbed to the 4th place in the General Classification, 1’16” behind leader Primoz Roglic. Tomorrow will be the final stage of this Tour de Romandie, going from Mont-sur-Rolle to Geneva (181km).
