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Columbia's Rabon regains lead at Romandie

By VeloNews.com
Published: May. 1, 2009
2009 Tour de Romandie: Columbia-Highroad en route to winning the stage-3 TTT.
2009 Tour de Romandie: Columbia-Highroad en route to winning the stage-3 TTT.
Photo: Graham Watson

Columbia-Highroad won the stage-3 team time trial at the Tour de Romandie on Friday, slotting Czech Frantisek Rabon back into the leader’s jersey he first claimed in the prologue.

Caisse d'Epargne finished second at 10 seconds back with Saxo Bank third a further six seconds in arrears.

The man who began the day in the leader's jersey — Gregory Rast (Astana), who took the overall lead on stage 1 — found himself unable to keep up with his squad during the 14.8km race against the clock. Rast fell off the pace with teammates Alexandr Dyachenko and Michael Schär, and by the finish had plummeted all the way to 50th on the overall at 1:43.

His teammates finished 34 seconds off the pace in eighth position on the day.

“Gregy paid the price for his efforts yesterday," said Astana director Sean Yates. "He went very deep yesterday. It was a very hard climb and he was there. That added to the efforts of Wednesday ... it all adds up."

Rabon now leads Saxo’s Lars Bak by one second on the overall with Columbia teammate Tony Martin third at eight seconds back.

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