Tour de Romandie stage 4: Lipowitz refuses to crack as Pogačar rules the Jaunpass

Tadej Pogačar won stage four of the Tour de Romandie. The Slovenian started as the clear favourite for the queen stage and lived up to that billing. On the final climb he accelerated and rode clear of his rivals solo. Florian Lipowitz stayed closest and ensured the yellow jersey wearer cannot rest easy heading into Sunday's final stage.

After two hard but classification-wise inconclusive stages, stage four was always going to be very, very different. The Jaunpass cast a shadow over the entire day — the brutal climb was tackled three times. Tadej Pogačar still wore the leader's jersey, and he was expected to know exactly what to do with 3,500 metres of climbing.

The first ascent of the Jaunpass came after around 20 kilometres. It was immediately a fierce battle: a strong group rode clear, including Dutch riders Menno Huising (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek). The pace was so high, however, that the two were quickly dropped. It became harder still when even Primož Roglič crossed to the break.

The Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe Slovenian had lost a lot of time in the previous two stages and sat nearly six minutes behind his compatriot. The tempo at the front whittled the move into an elite group: Roglič was joined by Michael Leonard (EF Education-EasyPost), Maxime Decomble (Groupama-FDJ), Valentin Paret-Peintre, Louis Vervaeke (both Soudal Quick-Step), Marco Brenner and King of the Mountains Roland Thalmann (both Tudor).

Brenner was dropped on the second passage of the Jaunpass, leaving six riders out front. They gained more and more time through the long valley towards the finale. But this time UAE Team Emirates-XRG were not prepared to give the break the stage win as they had tried to do on Friday. The pace in the peloton was high and the group was strung out in a line. They crept closer and closer.

On the penultimate climb — the Saanenmöser pass — the breakaway splintered under the increased pace. They held on a little longer as a result, but by the final ascent of the Jaunpass everyone already knew enough. Roglič, Paret-Peintre and Leonard fought back, but saw their advantage fall below a minute. Pogačar had Felix Großschartner as his final domestique, but once he was spent, Pogačar went himself.

Lenny Martinez jumped straight onto his wheel, while Florian Lipowitz and Jørgen Nordhagen briefly left a small gap. They flew straight past the breakaway riders. And where Martinez had previously ridden like a shadow for the Slovenian, he was quickly forced to let the wheel go. Lipowitz, however, fought back and clung to the yellow jersey's wheel. We had a race.

The pair rapidly extended their lead over the rest. It was clear, however, that Pogačar did not want the German alongside him at the finish: a second acceleration around a kilometre from the summit was enough to make the difference. He crossed the top with around 15 seconds in hand, while the Nordhagen–Martinez group — which had grown somewhat — was already a minute down.

On the descent, Carlos Rodríguez, leader of INEOS Grenadiers, crashed heavily, though he was able to remount. The Spaniard had been in the chasing group but could now forget about a strong result. Once on the flat, the gap between Pogačar and Lipowitz stood at 20 seconds, but the Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe chaser held his position well against the race leader.

He could see the yellow jersey ahead and had a target to aim for. Closing the gap proved impossible, however, so it was a matter of limiting the damage. Pogačar won his third stage of the race and strengthened his lead: Lipowitz crossed the line 14 seconds back, keeping the race alive for the final day. The remaining contenders came in at 1 minute 40 seconds.