Francesco De Bonis (Gerolsteiner) pulled off a gutsy victory in the mountainous stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie, answering late charges by Manuel Beltran (Liquigas) and John Gadret (Ag2r-La Mondiale) to cross the line first in Zinal after having spent most of the day out front.

Andreas Klöden (Astana) retained the overall lead by 35 seconds over Roman Kreuziger (Cze), Liquigas with Marco Pinotti (Team High Road) third at 0:43.

The 112.4km stage from Sion to Zinal, with four category-1 climbs, was nervous and animated from the outset. Remy di Gregorio (Française des Jeux), leader of the mountains classification after Spaniard Patxi Vila (Lampre-Fondital) did not take the start, was among the riders trying without success to break away in the early going.

An 11-man break separated itself on the descent from Vex

Photo: Graham Watson

An 11-man break separated itself on the descent from Vex: Volodymir Gustov (CSC), David Lopez Garcia (Caisse d’Epargne), Francesco De Bonis (Gerolsteiner), Michael Albasini (Liquigas), Hubert Schwab (Quick Step), Steve Zampieri (Cofidis), John Gadret (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Dmitriy Fofonov (Crédit Agricole), Stephan Halgand (Crédit Agricole), Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Stef Clément (Bougues Telecom).

Astana and Rabobank monitored the bunch for Klöden and second-placed Thomas Dekker as the break reached the summit of the category-1 St. Martin with a 90-second advantage. De Bonis led Zubeldia and Zampieri over the top and the leaders increased their advantage to 1:45 on the descent, extending it to two minutes at 48km.

Rabobank takes charge of the chase

Photo: Graham Watson

Behind, Rabobank assumed chasing duties, trimming the deficit to 1:14 with 57km to race.

With the gap coming down to just over a minute, De Bonis leapt away from the break to lead over the cat.-1 Vercorin, trailed by Zampieri, Zubeldia, Clement and Albasini. But once again the lead group reformed, and by the feed zone at 71.4km the gap was back up to more than two minutes.

With 26km to go, Halgand jumped, marked by De Bonis, and the two took a quick gap. Gustov, Schwab and Zubeldia bridged up to make it a five-man lead group as Fofonov and Lopez Garcia fell back to the bunch. Behind, Astana was setting the tempo in the chase.

And then the character of the overall race changed dramatically. As Maxim Iglinsky came to the front to crank up the volume for team leader Klöden, defending champion Dekker cramped and drifted to the back, drawing his right hand across his throat in an obvious “that’s-all, folks” gesture. He would later abandon the race.

Ahead, the front group had split again, with De Bonis and Halgand taking a gap over their erstwhile comrades with 21km to go. The Gerolsteiner man was clearly the stronger of the two and took the pulls. Behind, Iglinsky paced Klöden, dogged by Kreuziger, as attacks began to shred what remained of the peloton.

Up front, Gustov fought his way back to the leading duo, which had a margin of just over a minute. Then, with 19km to race, De Bonis went it alone on the third cat.-1 climb to Vissoie, hunting King of the Mountain points.

Behind him, an six-man chase had coalesced at 25 seconds — Halgand, Zubeldia, Gustov, David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Beltran and Dries Devenyns (Silence-Lotto). Sandy Casar (Française des Jour) managed to bridge to the lead chase group on the descent and went straight to the front with 13km to race.

Gadret takes a gamble on the final climb

Photo: Graham Watson

The peloton rode steadily, with Iglinsky on the front and Klöden right behind him, marked by Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Kreuziger.

With 12km to go, De Bonis was glancing over his shoulder, trying to gauge the state of the race. Beltran had left the chase and begun a lone pursuit. Meanwhile, Ag2r’s Gadret had a dig, leaping up to Halgand, Zubeldia, Moncoutié and Casar.

And then Klöden took things into his own hands, cranking up the pressure.

With 10km to race to the finish in Zinal, De Bonis had just a handful of seconds over Beltran, who in turn was being pursed by Juan Manuel Garate (Quick Step) and Gadret.

One kilometer from the KOM De Bonis held 28 seconds over Garate, Gadret and Beltran. All the players could see one another as the road wound back and forth across the mountain. Klöden was motoring at the front of the greatly reduced bunch with Kreuzinger on his wheel.

The KOM secured and his lead down to 12 seconds, De Bonis enjoyed a brief descent, then began the final 8km ascent to Zinal.

Di Bonis grabs the win ahead of a dejected Gadret

Photo: Graham Watson

The Liquigas riders began throwing attacks at Klöden, but they had waited a little too long — the race leader covered the jumps until Beltran finally snapped the leash and charged after De Bonis. At 5km to go fifth-placed Pinotti had a go, too, but was pulled back as Klöden maintained a steady, relentless tempo.

Ahead, Beltran finally caught De Bonis with 3km remaining. The Liquigas man led the way under the kite marking 1km to go, looking to be much the stronger of the two.

Not so. Five hundred meters from the line, Gadret shot out of the rapidly closing chase and overhauled the two leaders, jumping away from them with 300 meters to the line. Incredibly, the apparently spent De Bonis chased him down, shot past him — and won the stage!

"The breakaway went too early. When I found myself alone I began to feel tired.," said De Bonis. "I was scared when I saw Gadret coming back at me 100 meters from the line. It was only 50 meters out that I thought I'd done it."