Geraint Thomas has claimed overall victory at the Tour de Romandie while his 36-year-old Australian teammate Richie Porte took the runner's up spot after the decisive time trial.
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While Remi Cavagna was winning the closing race against the clock in Fribourg on Sunday, all eyes were on the battle for the overall title following Thomas's bizarre crash inside the final 50 metres of the mountain stage to Thyon the previous day.
That spill cost the Ineos Grenadiers rider the chance to move into the yellow jersey, leaving the Welshman to repair the damage done on a rolling 16km solo test as he claimed his first race victory since the 2018 Tour de France.
Cavagna won the stage with a time of 21 minutes 54 seconds as Thomas finished third on the day, 17 seconds down on the French champion.
But the Welshman, who had started 11 seconds behind Canadian Michael Woods in the overall standings, had no problems overhauling the Israel Start-Up Nation rider who ended up fifth in the GC with time trialling not being his strongest suit.
Instead, Thomas took overall victory by 28 seconds from fellow Ineos rider Porte, who was fifth fastest in the time trial, 20 seconds behind Cavagna.
Another Australian, Ben O'Connor, riding for the AG2R-Citroen Team, finished sixth overall, 45 seconds behind Thomas while his compatriot Lucas Hamilton ended up eighth overall, one minute 22 seconds down.
Adelaide's Rohan Dennis, who had started the race by winning the time trial prologue and defended the yellow jersey brilliantly until a crash on Friday, ended by finishing ninth on the stage and 17th overall.
"I'm very happy," Thomas said. "Especially after the little mishap yesterday which wasn't ideal and made it more of a challenge today.
"I felt good and it reminded me of when I won the Tour in Esepelette, it was a similar sort of stage.
"On the last descent they were on the radio telling me to take it easy, don't do anything stupid. I'm really happy to finish it off."
It was Thomas' first victory at a race previously won by Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, with the result suggesting his preparations for the Tour de France are going well.
"I said at the start of the year my goal was the Tour and every race is building up to that," Thomas added.
"I didn't really put any pressure on myself to perform early but I seem to have come in to good shape pretty soon and had a lot of good races..."
Australian Associated Press
