Giacomo Nizzolo proved his versatility when he survived the tough climbing in today's fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie and his Trek team did an awful lot of work to try to bring it back to a sprint finish. However, it all came to nothing when the Italian went down in the finale, luckily without any serious consequences.

After a disappointing third place in stage two Giacomo Nizzolo was posed to make amends in the 174-kilometer stage four of the Tour de Romandie. 

The final road stage was comprised of six circuits of 29 kilometers with the start and finish line situated in the town of Fribourg. It was a deceivingly tough stage with over 2,000 meters (7,000 feet) of climbing, but Nizzolo was right there in the mix in the final kilometers. It was again a vastly reduced bunch that was chasing down the final three riders of an original five-man breakaway, and it was going to be an exciting, breathless finish.

Then a crash near the front with less than seven kilometers remaining stopped everything: Nizzolo went down hard with a few others and the chase was disrupted.

“Giacomo was unlucky, not much you can do,” shrugged director Alain Gallopin. “In the beginning he was not good – but each lap he felt better, and by the last lap he was ready for the sprint. On the last climb, he was super good, and at the front. It’s too bad.”

“He did not have a lot of confidence in the beginning,” Gallopin added, “But by the end he was feeling good and he had his confidence back. It was not exactly a parcours for the sprinter – it was very difficult.  But Giacomo is a complete rider: he’s a good sprinter but also a very good puncher. For the future he has many possibilities, like in the Classics - he just has to believe more in himself.”

It was a breakaway of five strong riders that established 20 kilometers in, and with Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) the highest placed in the general classification at six minutes, Katusha and Team Sky did the minimum amount of work, just enough to keep the escapees in check. 

The teams with an eye on the stage win needed to take up the reins to help reel in the five riders and Trek Factory Racing did just that, explained Gallopin. In the final laps Jesse Sergent was a huge workhorse and helped whittle down the gap to the remaining three riders of the breakaway.  All was for naught when the crash ended Trek factory Racing’s hopes and the three breakaway riders sailed into the finish for a three-up sprint.

“We decided to begin to pull with two laps to go, and Giant-Shimano helped,” Gallopin explained about the race tactics today. “Alone we cannot close the gap because it was a tough parcours, and we are a little bit tired. When the gap came down, more teams came to help, but they came too late. In the end the peloton arrived only 10 seconds behind. With a little more help from other teams, it may have made a difference.”

In the final kilometer, with over half a minute in hand, the three leading riders slowed and the game of cat-n-mouse began. Despite leading for the final 1000 meters Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) easily sprinted to his third stage win, leaving Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) in second and third, scratching their heads wondering what they should have done differently to try and beat him.

Tomorrow the Tour de Romandie concludes with an indvidual time trial, which will determine the overall winner of the six-day race with one second separating the first two spots. Riccardo Zoidl will hope to put in a good race against the clock to try and move foward a few places in the GC. He currently sits in 14th (+3'01").