Tour de Romandie: Richard Carapaz takes stunning mountain win as Juan Ayuso cracks

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) took a dramatic win on stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie, attacking with 2.2km to go on the Queen stage and narrowly holding off the challenge of Florian Lipowitz (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the line.

Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) finished third on the stage and moved into the race lead after overnight leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) cracked on the final climb. The Spaniard lost 46 seconds by the time he crossed the line, and was left isolated as one-by-one his teammates were dropped on the final slopes to Leysin.

Ineos Grenadiers controlled the race for much of the stage, setting a blistering pace on the 13.8km final ascent before Egan Bernal blew the front group to pieces with two searing attacks.

Lipowitz made his move with 3.1km to go with only Carapaz and Rodriguez able to follow. With 2.2km to go Carapaz struck for home and there was no immediate response but as the Olympic champion came into the final 300m Lipowitz kicked again and almost caught the EF Education-EasyPost rider at the line.

Carapaz, however, hung on to take a morale boosting win for him and his team, while Lipowitz took second and vital bonus seconds to move himself into third overall at just nine seconds off Rodriguez's lead with one stage remaining. Ayuso dropped to fifth overall, at 27 seconds, while Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished fifth on the stage and sits second in the GC, just seven seconds off the yellow jersey.

Break survives until the final climb

The Queen stage of this year's Tour de Romandie was always going to decide the outcome of this year's race, with five categorised climbs, including the long ascent to Leysin to end proceedings.

That didn't stop a wave of early attacks before the day's break settled with Clément Berthet and Dorian Godon (both Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa - B&B Hotels), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), and Bart Lemmen (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) moving clear.

On the second category climb of Les Rives the leaders enjoyed a slender 1:30 over the peloton with Ineos Grenadiers doing much of the pace-setting with 55km to go.

The climb would eventually end the challenge of everyone in the break but for Berthet, who slipped free with 51km to go and maintained his advantage onto the next climb of Les Giettes.

Surprisingly, Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) was distanced by the peloton soon after, as Ethan Hayter and the ever-dependable Jonathan Castroviejo set the pace for Rodriguez and his Ineos train. Berthet, who by now had been on the attack for almost 80km, showed no signs of fatigue as he powered up the climb, and he even managed to extend his advantage to 1:30 with 30km to go.

The 26-year-old Frenchman pressed on through the valley following a technical descent and hit the foot of the final 13.8km climb with a full minute on the vastly reduced peloton.

Less than 10km from the summit, Ayuso began to ship teammates, with Brandon McNulty the first to falter from the climbing group before Jan Christen soon followed.

Ineos Grenadiers turn the screw

The pace at the front of the yellow jersey group shot up once Thymen Arensman stretched his legs, and with 5.4k to go Berthet was finally reeled in. The real damage, however, was done by Bernal who accelerated with 5.1km remaining and had the entire front group scrambling for cover. Strangely, it was his teammate Rodriguez who closed the move down before Bernal moved back to the front and raised the pace once more.

Jai Hindley and Julian Alaphilippe were both cut adrift with the less than 10 riders left in the front group as Ayuso continued to lose teammates.

Bernal accelerated for a second time with 3.8km to go, clearly sensing that the race leader was on the ropes, but was Lipowitz who moved clear to establish the winning move and almost take an incredible stage win.

Carapaz, who had been searching for a WorldTour win since joining the American squad last year, held on for the victory and moved into seventh overall.