Besides a Rabo-party, the fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie was also a great day for Dutch cycling. With Michael Boogerd close to his retirement, all Dutch cycling-watchers are worrying about who is going to be the new torchbearer. Thomas Dekker had been heavily criticized over the past few months but he did not let that get to him. He now proved his critics wrong. Robert Gesink, in his turn, has been applauded over the past few months. He proved the press and supporters right.

Pin-prick Menchov
The course from Charmey and Gruyère to Morgins, which was some 156 kilometers long, was not only difficult because of the mountains in it. The weather also played an important role. Unlike in the Netherlands the weather was extremely cold and it rained heavily. So it became a matter of survival in which Dekker seized the opportunity to do some good business in his last spring job. An attack by ten cyclists colored the day. There were no Rabo-cyclists in it.

They kept quiet until the second-to-last climb. There, Menchov inflicted minor pain. But it was more than that since the Russian showed he is not falling behind on his Tour de France schedule. It had less of an impact on the stage itself; he was quickly caught up with. Menchov broke away at the same time Stangelj did that in the lead group. The other nine were soon gobbled up by the pack but the Slovene from Lampre gave them a hard time.

Protest Team Leader to no Avail
In the end, the pack, led by leader Paolo Salvoldelli's Astana team, quickly caught up with Stangelj in the final climb. The Kazaks kept up the pace for a long time and it was already clear by then that Dekker was feeling well. In the end, he benefited more from the work than the Italian himself. Anton had escaped earlier; Dekker closed in on him with Horner and Gadret. The four held on until the end where the Basque finished first and Horner took the lead in the general ranking.

Disappointment prevailed with Dekker in spite of his strong performance. "I am really upset about this; I do not squeeze my brakes for no reason, right? Especially because it was the hardest stage in a ProTour stage course. But I feel I have shown that I am the old Thomas again, the one the Netherlands lost last year right before the Tour de France. I had some left after the classics and am thrilled I came to this course. And we shall see tomorrow."

Dekker finished sixth in the time trial two years ago, remembered team leader Erik Dekker. He was of course very glad with both his namesake and Gesink. "Very good, they can be proud of themselves." The team leader had complained to the jury about Anton's sprint. "But the commissioner had already made his decision. On the TV-images up front you could see very little but I thought a complaint would make sense after seeing the helicopter images. Unfortunately it was not meant to be." 

Andy Schleck (CSC) delivered one of the most brilliant results of his entire career, when he took a seventh place. "It was great to see Andy sitting up front among some of the best climbers in the world – and especially under such difficult circumstances. There's no doubt he's gained a lot of confidence from this, which will come in very handy for Giro d'Italia. He advanced to an overall ninth place, but we have to face the fact that there are some stronger time trial specialists both in front of him and behind, so it might be difficult to maintain his position during the final stage – and even harder to improve it of course. But never the less it' a fantastic effort by Andy," said CSC sports director Scott Sunderland after the stage.

"We'd kinda hoped that David Zabriskie would be able to sit up front as well, because the time trial tomorrow is perfect for him, but he lost a couple of minutes out there today and that's too much to make up tomorrow. This weather is just not his thing at all," concluded Sunderland.

Discovery Channel’s for Giro d’Italia:
Yaroslav “Popo” Popovych
Volodomyr Bileka
Steve Cummings
Pavel Padrnos
Jose Luis “Chechu” Rubiera
Tomas Vaitkus
Brian Vandborg
Jurgen Van Goolen
Matthew “Whitey” White

In all, the nine Discovery Channel riders have started 58 Grand Tours, 25 of those coming from the Giro d’Italia, and it is that depth of experience that has Sean Yates, Discovery Channel lead Sports Director for the Giro, very optimistic.

“[Ivan] Basso leaving our squad was certainly a loss but is not a disaster," said Yates. "Popo was always preparing to do a good Giro and he is on form. If all goes right for him I think he can be on the podium like he has been in the past.

"Aside from working for Popo, we will try to win at least one stage and wear the leader's jersey too. We have a strong group of guys with a lot of experience in grand tours and Popo will need all of their help and wisdom to get him onto the podium.”

Discovery’s Popovych is not unproven in Grand Tours. The 27-year-old Ukrainian has competed in 5 Grand Tours (3 Giro d’Italia / 2 Tour de France), finishing third and fifth in the 2003 and 2004 editions of the Giro respectively and also won the best young rider competition at the 2005 Tour de France, finishing 12th overall in the process.