“First victory in the World Tour, you just had to be patient and I’m rewarded,” reacted the winner of the day to the microphone of our colleagues at L’Equipe. Dorian Godon (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) won, after a massive sprint, the first stage of the Tour de Romandie (Switzerland), Wednesday April 24 in Fribourg, and also took the lead in the general classification, 6 seconds ahead of Belgian Gianni Vermeersch and 9 seconds ahead of Julian Alaphilippe.
“I had complicated feelings all day with the cold, it was hard. The whole team did a great job,” insisted the 27-year-old runner, who was able to seize a great opportunity in 5 degrees and under the threat of rain. Fourth in the prologue the day before, the 1.90m Ile-de-France native adds a ninth victory to his record, having won the Flèche Brabançonne in 2023.
This first stage took place over 165.7 km, with 2,617 m of elevation gain, between Château-d’Œx, in the Vaudois Alps, and Fribourg. With a lot of terrain – notably the Lorette and Arconciel bumps – and the possibility of finishing in a sprint, the event seemed tailor-made for Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step). Building on his third place in the prologue the day before, the double world champion (2020, 2021) was expected to be the favorite. His two attacks, at 11 and 6 km from the finish, did not pay off and he was easily caught by the peloton.
Coup double
It was ultimately Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale which carried out the great operation here, with a double blow since second place in the stage went to the Italian Andrea Vendrame. This is already the eleventh victory of the season for the French team. The German Juri Hollmann (Alpecin-Deceuninck) takes the mountain points and takes on the sky blue jersey of best climber.
On Thursday, the second stage will take the peloton 171km from Friborg to Salvan-Les Marécottes for the first summit finish of this Tour de Romandie after a 7.6km climb at 7.5%. The race is due to end on Sunday April 28 in Vernier, near Geneva. The Briton Adam Yates, 2023 title holder and 41st on today’s stage, is one of the favorites but will have to be wary of the competition, notably embodied by Aleksandr Vlasov, Juan Ayuso and Jai Hindley.