Richard Carapaz returns to win a World Tour race after two years. The Ecuadorian from EF Education-Easypost wins the fourth stage of the Tour of Romandie arriving alone at the finish line in Leysin, attacking just over two kilometers from the finish line and resisting the comeback of Florian Lipowitz (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the finale.
The EF captain thus managed to get back into the game for the final victory of the Swiss race. With only one fraction to run, now Carapaz is seventh overall, 49″ behind the new leader of the race, the Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez.
The Tokyo Olympic champion revealed his tactics at the end of the race: “I’m happy to have managed to impose myself in a very tough stage. I took advantage of the work of Ineos which made the stage very difficult, at 7-8 kilometers the group was very select. In the finale I took advantage of their work and managed to get to the finish line“.
Carapaz then reveals his feelings about the ending: “We found ourselves in the small group with Carlos Rodriguez and we knew that Lipowitz would be the fastest among us, I had to anticipate my actions. Luckily I knew the stage very well, Florian came very close to catching me at the end, when I got to -100 meters from the finish line I realized I had won, that’s when I started to enjoy it“.
