Team Garmin-Transitions wrapped up the Tour of Romandie on Sunday. Once again it was rain on the menu as Christian Vande Velde rode strong over the mountain climbs to claim 14th overall — giving him more confidence heading into the May races. Johnny Weltz has the report:
Another very wet and cold morning greeted us, with a start at the bottom of a first category climb. Attacks went right from the gun, making an already hard stage much harder!
With the small splits between the GC contenders in mind the teams counted on a final batle on the hardest climb, a category one with a summit just 20km from the finish.
The race got very hard there and totally broke into pieces. We had VDV in the first row after a good set up by Travis Meyer.
VDV stayed with the first riders all over the climb, and showed he is getting better every day. He finished up in the front and finished among the best.
This was a hard stage race but an a important test. A good result for VDV with 14th overall!
More photos from the Tour of Romandie:
