Astana has successful Stage 5 at Tour de Romandie

"Today was a hard day, as the pace was really high throughout the stage. So I was really happy when we raced into the final part of the stage and I could go to the back of the pack to let the sprinters do their job. We can look back to some successful weeks for the team, starting with the classics in Belgium and finishing with this week's Tour de Romandie. Especially because of yesterday's victory I'm really happy and satisfied, it gives me a lot of confidence and moral for the main goals of the season. Now it's time for some rest so I can start fresh with the preparations for the Tour de France, starting with a training camp at Tenerife and racing at Tour de Suisse," said Jakob Fuglsang.

The final stage of this year's Tour de Romandie was one for the sprinters, a stage of 181 kilometers from Mont-sur-Rolle to Geneva with three easy climbs of the 3rd category. A breakaway took off right after the official start was given but they never gained a gap of more than 3 minutes. The peloton controlled with the sprint teams and the team of the GC leader, and going into the final 30 kilometers of the stage, the breakaway had less than a minute advantage left.

Going in the final 10km, the breakaway was caught and the sprinters got into place for the final showdown. Pascal Ackermann was the fastest man of the day, crossing the finish line first in the streets of Geneva. The riders of Astana Pro Team finished in the bunch, with Jakob Fuglsang securing his 4th place in the General Classification.

"We're happy with the results here, also because most of the riders already had some classic races in their legs. Two Stage wins, a 4th place in the GC with Jakob Fuglsang and 2nd in the Team Classification, that's something to be proud of. It's a very good performance of the team and from this point we can work towards our next goals in this 2018 season," said sports director Dmitriy Fofonov.