Carapaz wins Queen stage as Rodriguez takes Yellow at the Tour de Romandie

Rodriguez finished third on the stage as he finished just behind solo winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education First) to move into the yellow leader's after his teammates had taken control of the race

Carlos Rodriguez moved into the race lead after tremendous teamwork from the Grenadiers in an exciting stage four of Tour de Romandie. 

The former Spanish national champion will take a seven second lead into Sunday's final stage ahead of Bora Hansgrohe pair Aleksandr Vlasov and Florian Lipowitz. 

Earlier, the Grenadiers had set their stall out with Magnus Sheffeld, Ethan Hayter and Oscar Rodriguez keeping the team well-positioned at the front of the peloton for the first of five categorised climbs. 

With the aim to pressure race leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and his team, Oscar Rodriguez then put in one final push on Les Rives before letting Jonathan Castroviejo and Hayter keep a strong pace over the subsequent category three climb and the flat section before the summit finish to Leysin. 

This pace gradually thinned an already reduced peloton, with Thymen Arensman then taking over to kick-start the decisive move on the final ascent. 

Bernal attacked an ever-dwindling group, with only a handful of GC riders able to follow, before Lipowitz and then Carapaz countered, the Olympic champion able to go clear and solo to victory. 

Lipowitz and Rodriguez gave chase but were unable to catch Carapaz, however the INEOS Grenadiers rider made significant ground overall to take the race lead by seven seconds from Vlasov with one stage remaining. 

VIDEO: Tour de Romandie Stage 4 Highlights

Tour de Romandie Stage 4 Top 10

1  CARAPAZ Richard EF Education - EasyPost 4:06:03
2  LIPOWITZ Florian BORA - hansgrohe 0:00
3  RODRÍGUEZ Carlos INEOS Grenadiers 0:10
4  MAS Enric Movistar Team 0:14
5  VLASOV Aleksandr BORA - hansgrohe 0:14
6  BERNAL Egan INEOS Grenadiers 0:27
7  VAN WILDER Ilan Soudal Quick-Step 0:31
8  GEOGHEGAN HART Tao Lidl - Trek 0:40
9  GAUDU David Groupama - FDJ 0:41
10  RODRÍGUEZ Cristián Arkéa - B&B Hotels 0:44

Tour de Romandie GC after Stage 4

1  RODRÍGUEZ Carlos INEOS Grenadiers 12:22:46
2  VLASOV Aleksandr BORA - hansgrohe 0:07
3  LIPOWITZ Florian BORA - hansgrohe 0:09
4  VAN WILDER Ilan Soudal Quick-Step 0:21
5  AYUSO Juan UAE Team Emirates 0:27
6  MAS Enric Movistar Team 0:38
7  CARAPAZ Richard EF Education - EasyPost 0:49
8  MARTINEZ Lenny Groupama - FDJ 0:52
9  GEOGHEGAN HART Tao Lidl - Trek 1:02
10  BERNAL Egan INEOS Grenadiers 1:23