Primoz Roglic extends lead on Snowed out Queen Stage ahead of final time trial

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) outsprinted his GC rivals to take victory on the summit finish on the shortened Queen Stage

Rui Costa (UAE-Team Emirates) was second and Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) came third.

“It was a hard stage. I lost the sprint yesterday, so I wanted to try and win today,” said Roglic at the finish.

Due to bad weather with snow forecast on the early climbs, the Col des Mosses was taken out of route for safety reasions. The shortened stage still included the category one summit finish, a 10.5 km climb to Torgons, that averaged 6.8 percent.

Early on an eight-man breakaway formed, but as the finale of the Torgons climb approached, theri lead was down to 1m 15s.

Te breakaway imploded on the steep slopes with Dani Martinez (EF-Education First) and Alexis Gougegard (AG2R-La Mondiale) attacking.

Behind race leader Roglic, second place David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), and GC contenders Thomas and Rui Costa started to reel in the breakaway's lead of one minute.

Winner Anacona (Movistar) and Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) attacked  were the first to attack as the weather worsened.

Martinez and Gougegard hung onto their lead as Anacona and Spilak together with breakaway survivors Simon Pellaud and Roland Thalmann chased.

Behind, Ineos setting the pace working for Geraint Thomas and the breakaway was caught with five kilometers to go.

Gaudu attacked first and Roglic followed his wheel, teammate Steven Kruijswijk tool up the pace setting further reducing what was left of the peloton.

Hugh Carthy (EF-Education First) attacked with 2kms to go and again Roglic along with Thomas covered his move.

Behind Michael Woods (EF-Education First) clawed back the attackers. 

The remaining group came all back together, and it was Roglic who showed his strength by outsprinting his main rivals to the finish line.

Prmioz Roglic has 12-second lead over Rui Costa going into Sunday’s final 16.8km individual time trial around Geneva.

VIDEO: 2019 Tour de Romandie Stage 4 Highlights

2019 Tour de Romandie Stage 4 Top 10

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Jumbo-Visma
2 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos
4 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First
5 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ
6 Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
7 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team
8 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
9 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin

2019 Tour de Romandie GC after Stage 4

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 15:05:13 
2 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:12 
3 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:16 
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:26 
5 Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:29 
6 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:37 
7 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First 0:00:38 
8 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:39 
9 Carlos Betancur (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:57 
10 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:00