It seemed likely that the final day of the Tour de Romandie wouldn’t provide much separation on Sunday and that was certainly the case. There were 78 riders who finished in the peloton and the top 11 for the overall standings were all part of that. That meant Tejay Van Garderen stayed in tenth place for the tour despite being 55th across the line. It was the second top ten finish of the year for Van Garderen who ended up 1:27 behind winner Nairo Quintana of Colombia.
Nathan Brown (64th), Chad Haga (68th), Peter Stetina (69th), and Joe Dombrowski (70th) also finished in the peloton. Brown finished a solid 29th overall while Dombrowski (44th) and Stetina (46th) both jumped into the top 50 on the final day. Despite dropping 2:47 in time for finishing next after the 78-man peloton Brent Bookwalter still finished 35th overall. Both Brown and Bookwalter’s overall finish was their highest of the year.
Also posting season best finishes were Alexey Vermeulen in 65th, Chad Haga in 69th, and Andrew Talansky in 105th (a DNF in his only previous event). The UCI World Tour will continue with the Tour of Italy from May 6th through the 29th.
Tejay Van Garderen continued his strong Tour de Romandie showing on Saturday in the final mountain stage. Van Garderen finish ninth and only was nine seconds back of the winner, Christopher Froome of Great Britain. In the overall standings Van Garderen slipped ever so slightly to tenth and should have a good chance to finish in the top ten for the second time this year with a good finish on Sunday.
Three other Americans finished in the top 50, Nathan Brown rebounded from being 79th in the time trial on Friday to finishing 38th on Saturday, 12:11 back. Brent Bookwalter was 46th and Peter Stetina was 47th, both about 13 minutes back. Both Bookwalter (34th) and Brown (38th) are still in the top 50 for the full event.
The Tour de Romandie wraps up on Sunday with a 110.2 mile flat stage.
In the third stage of the Tour de Romandie, a quick 9.4 mile time trial, Tejay Van Garderen posted the 11th best time, 25 seconds back, and was able to move into the top ten for the overall standings where he now is ninth, 1:22 behind leader Nairo Quintana of Colombia. Three other Americans finished in the top 50 on Friday, Brent Bookwalter in 26th, 46 seconds back, Chad Haga just inside a minute back at 59 seconds in 35th, and Andrew Talansky in 40th 1:01 back. Bookwalter moved up to 24th in the overall standings while Nathan Brown stayed in the top 50 at 36th despite finishing 79th on Friday.
The Tour de Romandie has its final mountain stage on Saturday, a 107.3 mile stretch that will probably determine the winner.
The US competitors as a group were all strong on Thursday at the Tour de Romandie as all eight finished in the top 100 including three in the top 50. Tejay Van Garderen stayed the top American after a 20th place finish 1:01 back that dropped him to 16th overall. Brent Bookwalter was the second American in the top 50 with a 32nd place finish 2:29 back and is now in 31st overall. The third American to finish in the top 50 was Nathan Brown in 33rd. Brown made a big move in the overall standings when jumped from 98th to 37th.
The Tour de Romandie has just a 9.4 mile time trial on Friday.
The first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday had to be reduced in length and ended up a bit easier for the peloton to stick together. Stick together they did as 109 riders finished with the top time including six Americans. Brent Bookwalter was the first one in 47th with Tejay Van Garderen finishing 55th. Those two both moved up slightly in the overall standings with Van Garderen now eighth and Bookwalter 23rd. Also still in the top 50 is Joe Dombrowski who moved up to 39th after finishing 93rd (how weird does that sound?).
The Tour de Romandie continues with a 108.1 mile mountain stage on Thursday.
The Tour de Romandie kicked off on Tuesday with a simple 2.5 mile time trial and eight Americans in the field. Originally that was to include Alex Howes, top American in two of the last three UCI World Tour events, but he did not start the race while Nathan Brown did.
The top American on Tuesday was Tejay Van Garderen, racing on the tour in the first time in almost a month, who finished ninth. Two other Americans were in the top 50: Brent Bookwalter in 26th and Joe Dombrowski in 42nd. The three are 11 seconds, 18 seconds, and 23 seconds behind the leader.
The Tour de Romandie continues with a 103.7 mile flat stage on Wednesday.
For the second time in three races on the UCI World Tour Alex Howes finished as the top American. After finishing 32nd in the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday Howes finished 21st in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege a week later in a group just 12 seconds behind the winner. Howes’ finish was the third highest by an American on the tour this season.
Lawson Craddock was the next American to finish in 37th and 1:41 behind winner Wout Poels. The only other American in the top 100 was Peter Stetina who finished 85th, 5:27 back. Kiel Reijnen ended a streak of three straight races he had not finished and was 151st.
The next UCI World Tour event is the Tour de Romandie starting Tuesday and running until May 1st. Howes is scheduled to be in the field as will Tejay Van Garderen who has not raced since the Volta a Cataluyna a month ago where he finished fifth. Joe Dombrowski also hasn’t raced since then and finished 37th in that, his only event so far this year. Stetina, fresh off the 85th place finish Sunday is in the field and Andrew Talansky who did not finish his only event so far this year, the Paris-Nice race.
The Tour de Romandie starts with a 3.95km time trial on Tuesday.
Eleven Americans will be in the field Sunday for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in Belgium, a 157.2 mile race. Lawson Craddock is the top American in the field but finished 121st in the last race, La Fleche Wallonne, on Wednesday. The best American in that race, Peter Stetina who finished 35th, is in this race as is Alex Howes who was the top American finisher in the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday where he finished 32nd. Kiel Reijnen will be hoping to complete the race and break a streak of three straight races he has not finished.
The next six events on the Tour and seven of the next eight are multi-day events instead of the single day races that have been six of the last seven.
The Americans came close to the top spot in La Fleche Wallonne Feminine but had to settle for the next two as Anna Van Der Breggen held off a challenge from Evelyn Stevens to win by eight seconds with Megan Guarnier third 22 seconds back. Carmen Small was the third American in the top 25 with a 12th place finish 53 seconds back. Kristabel Doebel-Hickok had her first finish of the year, a 54th place finish, though this was only her second race. Stevens’ second place finish was tied for the best finish by an American this year.
On the men’s side only one American cracked the top 50 as Peter Stetina tied his season high with a 35th place finish, 40 seconds behind the winner. Chad Haga had his best finish of the year in only his second race in 103rd while Lawson Craddock was 121st and over seven minutes behind the winner.
On the men’s side the next race is the 157.2 mile Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Saturday. The women will head to Asia as the Tour of Chongming Island in China will be held from May 6th through the 8th. Megan Guarnier sits fourth on the women’s tour after six races.
Wednesday is the next stop in both the UCI World Tour and the UCI Women’s World Tour as the two will both race in Belgium at La Fleche Wallonne. Both will start and end in the same place but the men will cover 121.8 miles in their race while the women cover 85.13 miles. The two top Americans in the women’s field are Megan Guarnier and Carmen Small who both have top five finishes already this year. Guarnier was second in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio and was fourth in the most recent race, The Tour of Flanders. Small was fifth in the Gent-Wevelgem race. One rider, Amber Nelson, is making her first appearance of the year while Kristabel Doebel-Hickok is trying to finish a race for the first time after not finishing the season opening Strade Bianche.
On the men’s side the top competitor is Lawson Craddock who was ninth in last race, the Tour of the Basque Country, and 16th in his only other race this season, the Paris-Nice race. Larry Warbasse, Nathan Brown, Peter Stetina, and Alex Howes all are in the field as well having finished races in the top 50 this season.