After a great campaign of Ardennes classics, Aleksandr Vlasov won his first World Tour stage race. The Russian climber won the Tour de Romandie by winning the final time trial between Aigle and Villars (15.8 km) to dispossess Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) of the leader’s jersey. Second in the queen stage on Saturday, he took advantage of a course cut for his qualities with a 10 kilometer pass at an average gradient of 8.2% to finish this time trial. The climb was too difficult for Dennis who exploded after a decent start to the race. Only 22nd in the stage (+2’12”), the Australian champion is eighth in the final general classification (+1’54”). Vlasov is ahead of Simon Geschke (Cofidis, +31”) and Gino Mäder (Bahrain-Victorious, +36”). Geschke finished third overall (+55”) behind Mäder (+50”). A good time for Pinot Before the battle at a distance between the favorites for the general classification, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) found some feeling in the solo exercise. The climber from Franche-Comté took the lead of the stage as he passed. He was dislodged by Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) for two small seconds and finally took sixth place (+1’07”). In the general classification, Pinot finished 13th (+2’54”), penalized by the time lost on the first stage (1’38”) after a fall in the peloton. “The feelings were pretty good, I did the lap time thoroughly, 1000%, I have no regrets. It was important to reassure me about a time even if it was an uphill time for specialists and strong men, ”reacted the climber to the microphone of the L’Équipe channel. The leader of Groupama-FDJ admitted to being “frustrated” with his week in Romandie, where no stage allowed the climbers to create differences. He will resume competition at the Mercantour Classic (May 31) then at the Tour de Suisse (from June 12).