Thibau Nys is the leader in the Tour de Romandie after a wet time trial, a double for UAE Team Emirates

While McNulty, who started early, rode on dry roads, the classification riders completed their assignment against the clock in the rain. Nevertheless, Juan Ayuso was only 21 seconds slower than his teammate McNulty. It earned him fourth place in the day’s results and the yellow leader’s jersey. He took it over from Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek). Ilan Van Wilder, ninth in the time trial at thirty seconds, rose to second place in the standings. He has seven seconds to make up for the final victory on Ayuso.

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The Russian Aleksandr Vlasov is third at ten seconds. The Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez, fourth at eleven seconds, and the Frenchman Lenny Martinez, fifth at 0:23, are also within half a minute. Thibau Nys dropped to fourteenth place, at fifty seconds.

McNulty, national champion against the clock, recorded his fifth victory of the season, after a stage and final victory in the Tour of Valencia (2.Pro), time trial victory in the UAE Tour (WT) and the GP Miguel Indurain (1.Pro) .

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The fourth stage takes the peloton over 151.7 kilometers from Saillon to Leysin on Saturday. The queen stage with an uphill finish is spiced up by two first category climbs, one second and two third. The final climb to Leysin is 13.4 kilometers long and 6.1 percent steep. The 77th Tour de Romandie ends on Sunday in Vernier (Geneva), where a bunch sprint is expected.

McNulty had “surprisingly good legs”

Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates) has not been active in the mountains in recent days. “But today I had surprisingly good legs,” said the American stage winner after his time trial in the Tour de Romandie (WorldTour).

“In recent days I did not reach my usual level. However, I came here for a good final ranking. I put it down to tiredness after a long spring. After this race I took a break. The feeling was very bad, but today it suddenly went a lot better.”

With Juan Ayuso, UAE Emirates also has the new leader in its ranks. “It was a tough time trial, I think everyone gave up,” said the 21-year-old Spaniard. “I was mentally ready for it. My teammates had warned me how difficult it was. The feeling along the way was not fantastic, I also had a hard time, but I divided my efforts well, knew where I could push and where I could recover. The rain had made the descents quite treacherous. I gained some time there, because I took risks. I can now start the final stage in the best possible position, but there are still a lot of people less than a minute away. A lot can still happen, the team and I still have a lot of work to do.”