GENEVA: Joao Almeida grabbed overall victory in the Tour de Romandie on Sunday when he finished second to Remco Evenepoel in the closing time trial in Geneva.
“The goal was to win the race,” Almeida said. “What counts is the last day, right?” The day before, Almeida lost a mountain-top duel to Frenchman Lenny Martinez, a specialist climber, in an Alpine stage.
Entering Sunday´s time trial, Martinez led Italian Lorenzo Fortunato by two seconds and Portuguese rider Almeida by three seconds. Evenepoel, the Olympic and world time trial-champion, powered away to win the flat 17.1km stage in 20mins 33secs. Almeida was next fastest, 12 second behind. The diminutive Martinez was 13th, 41sec behind the winner to secure second overall. Fortunato was another 40 places and 55sec behind.