Tour de Romandie 2017: Viviani sprints to victory, Felline still leader

At 187 kilometres, stage 3 in the Tour de Romandie is played out on a hilly course. The race comes down to a bunch sprint with Elia Viviani besting Sonny Colbrelli. Fabio Felline retains in the overall lead. (Slideshow route/profile)

Results 3rd stage Tour de Romandie

1. Elia Viviani (ita)
2. Sonny Colbrelli (ita) s.t.
3. Michael Schwarzmann (ger) s.t.
4. Alexander Edmondson (aus) s.t.
5. Samuel Dumoulin (fra) s.t.
6. Youcef Reguigui (alg) s.t.
7. Maximiliano Richeze (arg) s.t.
8. Moreno Hofland (nld) s.t.
9. Viacheslav Kuznetsov (rus) s.t.
10. Juan José Lobato (spa) s.t.

GC after 3rd stage
1. Fabio Felline (ita)
2. Maximilian Schachmann (ger) + 0.08
3. Jesus Herrada (spa) s.t.
4. Primoz Roglic (slo) + 0.09
5. Ion Izagirre (spa) + 0.12
6. Bob Jungels (lux) s.t.
7. José Goncalves (por) + 0.13
8. Ruben Fernandez (spa) s.t.
9. Michael Albasini (swi) + 0.14
10. Jonathan Castroviejo (spa) s.t.

12. Jarlinson Pantano (col) + 0.15
14. Wilco Kelderman (nld) + 0.16
16. Simon Yates (gbr) + 0.18
23. Robert Gesink (nld) + 0.20
26. Simon Spilak (slo) + 0.23
28. Louis Meintjes (rsa) + 0.24
29. Maxime Monfort (bel) s.t.
34. Sebastien Reichenbach (swi) + 0.28
36. Chris Froome (gbr) + 0.29
40. Rigoberto Uran (col) + 0.30
46. Richie Porte (aus) + 0.33
49. Tejay van Garderen (usa) + 0.34
54. Ilnur Zakarin (rus) + 0.42

Race report
At km 12 Victor Campenaerts, Thomas De Gendt, Davide Martinelli, Lukas Pöstlberger, Toms Skujiņš, Hugo Houle and Nikita Stalnov break clear to race to a maximum lead of 3 minutes. The peloton doesn’t want to make the same mistake as yesterday, when they came too late to catch the strongest escapees.

The break is caught with 37 kms left, while Clarke and Courteille give it a go on the last climb. Van der Sande and Reichenbach chase them down, yet the quartet is brought back.

With 24 kms to go Alex Dowsett heads out on his own. In time triallist’s style he powers to a lead of half a minute, but with 3 kms to go he is caught by the peloton.

In the ensuing sprint Elia Viviani outpowers Sonny Colbrelli, thus bouncing back after the disappointment of not being selected for Team Sky’s squad for the Giro d’Italia.

Read about the route of the 3rd stage of the 2017 Tour de Romandie.