The Tour de Romandie speaks Spanish. It was not as everything seemed to indicate with Juan Ayuso, who was the leader. He missed the Alicante Emirates in the queen stage. But Carlos Rodríguez was on point to put on the yellow jersey. The man from Granada did well with the great work of his team, Ineos, to take over the lead with the last day remaining.
In Itzulia, on the way to Eibar, Ayuso and Rodríguez joined forces. They both cooperated. They were motivated by the same interests: dethroning Skjelmose. The general and the stage were divided. First and second overall. But in French-speaking Switzerland, the two pearls of Spanish cycling were rivals. They had to attack each other. They had to watch themselves. Condemned to confront.
In the final duel, the forces abandoned Ayuso and crowned, for the moment, Carlos Rodríguez, who recovered the 11s he had lost in the general standings with his compatriot.
The yellow jersey gives wings, they say in cycling, but sometimes the leadership also weighs down, stiffens the legs and puts an end to any chance of victory. It may be the pressure and nerves, which at his youth, 21 years old, he still has to learn to manage. But twice he has reached the queen stage of the Tour de Romandie with yellow and neither time has he been able to secure victory. Something similar happened to him in this same race last year. He was the leader after the time trial and could not be with the best the next day in the queen stage.
History repeated itself. The man from Alicante immediately realized that he was not going as soon as Egan Bernal attacked to prepare the ground for Carlos Rodríguez. Ayuso put his hand on his chest to speak into the microphone. He asked the team for help but Sivakov could do little for him.
Ineos was ambitious, trusted Rodríguez and worked almost the entire stage until Bernal launched the race 5 km from the top of the Leysin pass. The man from Granada went after him but Ayuso did not respond. On the other hand, Enric Mas, Carapaz, the two Boras and even Cristian Rodríguez (Arkéa) did hold out.
It was the signal that Ayuso was saying goodbye to the race, at the same time that Carlos was approaching her. The Andalusian was not as strong as Carapaz and Lipowitz. They both left him. The Ecuadorian 2 km from the finish line, the German already in the last kilometer. They were looking for the stage and Rodríguez was looking for glory, thanks in part to the bonus of being third in the stage.
Nobody is more regular and reliable than the lion of Almuñécar, who always shows his face and who in the last Tour dared to cough at Vingegaard and Pogacar in Morzine. Ineos dug deep to retain him and, now, the great threat to the Granada native comes from the Bora team. Vlasov is second at 7 seconds while Lipowitz is third at 9s.
In case Rodríguez, 23, ends up winning, we have to go back to 2014 to find the last year in which two different Spanish cyclists signed up for two one-week World Tour races. They were Contador (Tirreno-Adriatico) and Joaquim Rodríguez (Volta a Catalunya).