Stage 4 of Tour de Romandie 2023 exposed the riders to the hardest challenges of the entire tour. The 161.6-kilometer route from Sion to Thyon 2000 featured no less than two category 3 and three category 1 climbs, culminating on the famous Thyon 2000.

The hostilities started early, and a series of multiple attacks were launched and caught. This stage offered the chance to secure the biggest scalp of the race with a beautiful stage victory on a mountaintop – or gain a significant advantage in the general classification.

With 80 kilometers left of the race a ten-man group led the race. The group featured Ewen Costiou (Team Arkea-Samsic), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), early race leader Josef Cerny (Soudal-QuickStep), Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-Hansgrohe), Julien Bernard (Team Trek-Segafredo), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Team Jayco-Alula), Antoine Debons (Philippe Wagner Cycling), Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Dstny), Lawson Craddock (Team Jayco-Alula), and Team Astana’s Gianmarco Garofoli.

With 50 kilometers left, Cerny, Zwiehoff, Craddock, Juul-Jensen, and De Gendt had formed a front quintet with an advantage over multiple groups of chasers. The weather conditions were rainy.

With 20 kilometers to go Jesus Herrada (Team Cofidis) and Michael Woods (Team Israel-PremierTech) were involved in a crash in the peloton, while Brandon Smith Rivera (Ineos-Grenadiers) launched a short-lived attack from the front of the peloton.

UAE Team Emirates took to the front of the main peloton to set a fast pace for Adam Yates and race leader Juan Ayuso. Their acceleration caused multiple breakaway hopefuls to be caught.

12 kilometers from the finish line at the top of Thyon 2000 the breakaway hopefuls had been caught by the viciously chasing peloton where the favorites were setting themselves up for victory. Jayco-Alula riders were setting the pace at the front.

With 8 kilometers left a split occurred in the peloton.

Team DSM’s Marco Brenner moved to the front of the peloton to increase the pace and team captain Romain Bardet attacked three kilometers later. Meanwhile, Ayuso was dropped.

With 6 kilometers left, EF Education-EasyPost’s Simon Carr counterattacked while Max Poole (Team DSM), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), and Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-Alula) tried to close the gap.

Dunbar then launched a solo attack.

Later Bardet tried his luck again, but Yates was fast to accelerate and set out on a solo quest towards the finish line. Matteo Jorgenson (Team Movistar), Bardet and Brenner tried to catch up.

With 2.5 kilometers left, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) launched an attack from the chase group.

Yates crossed the finish line in solo fashion as winner of stage 4 and thereby also took the lead in the general classification. Pinot reached the top seven seconds later for his Groupama-FDJ team, while Caruso finished third having spent 19 seconds more on his bike than the stage winner. Poole finished fourth and Jorgenson was next to cross the line.

In the general classification Yates now leads Tour de Romandie 2023. Jorgenson is 19 seconds behind, while Caruso has a 27 second deficit on the leader. 

Sunday’s stage 5 of Tour de Romandie 2023 is the final stage of this year’s race.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for Tour de Romandie coverage.