The third stage of the Tour de Romandie ended up in a reduced bunch sprint with Luka Mezgec finishing 9th. Cheng Ji was part of a three-rider breakaway that rode in front almost all day.

Most climbs were situated in the first half of the route as a reduced bunch was heading to an entertaining finale. Many attacks took place along the mainly rolling roads, including some GC riders who made a try.

With strong sprinter Luka Mezgec aboard, Team Giant-Alpecin had to use its efforts prematurely to succeed in keeping the bunch together but unfortunately Mezgec was unable to compete for a podium finish. Again it was Michael Albasini (Orica GreenEDGE) who was the fastest in the sprint and won his second stage in a row.

“Our plan was to go in the break and that went pretty good with Cheng. The rest of the team would stay with Luka to help him survive the climbs in the best way possible. At the top of the second 2nd category climb Carter, Tobias, and Georg stayed with Luka to bring him back to the bunch again. Also that worked out well.

“In the finale, Georg controlled the many attacks and Tobias brought Luka in a good position with one km to go. The final 500m were very technical and Luka lost the wheel of later-winner Albasini”, said coach Dirk Reuling.