2025 Tour de Romandie Stage 2 Results & Recap
Stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de Romandie is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
After a sprint-dominated opener in Fribourg, Stage 2 of the 2025 Tour de Romandie brought the peloton into serious mountain territory — and delivered one of the craftier stage wins of the race.
Over 157 kilometres, the riders tackled multiple loops around La Grande Béroche beside Lake Neuchâtel, facing 2,750 metres of elevation gain, though the final 31 kilometres of the route were almost entirely flat. Four categorised climbs were on the menu: the Col de la Tourne (Cat. 2), Mauborget (Cat. 2), Les Grattes (Cat. 3), and Chaumont (Cat. 2).
The climbing began right from the flag, with the peloton immediately hitting the foot of the 7km Col de la Tourne. It didn't take long before attacks were launched, with riders using the early climbs as launchpads for their breakaway attempts.
Several riders attempted to get clear, notably Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost), though they were brought back before others countered. Eventually, a decisive front group formed: Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) launched the first significant move, joined by Junior Lecerf and Juan Pedro López, before Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) and Lennert Van Eetvelt bridged across to make it a five-man lead group.
With around 80km to go, the quintet held a lead of 1:45 over the main peloton, where Soudal-QuickStep were doing much of the chasing in support of Remco Evenepoel. But the GC favourites behind couldn't get a cohesive chase going, and the gap swelled to over a minute with 5km remaining — making it clear the stage would be settled among the five leaders.
What had looked like a five-man sprint was upended by some excellent tactical racing. Approaching the final kilometre, Lecerf, Van Eetvelt, Baudin, and López began pulling off and slowing the pace, not wanting to drag each other into the sprint. Fortunato, however, wasted no time — and after almost accidentally finding himself off the front, he committed fully and went all in.
Van Eetvelt briefly gave chase before abandoning the effort, allowing the Italian to build his advantage through the final 800 metres. When the sprint was eventually launched behind, Baudin proved the quickest of the chasers, but Fortunato was already celebrating. Junior Lecerf completed the podium.
Baudin's second place was enough to hand him the overall race lead, with Lecerf second at five seconds and Van Eetvelt third at six seconds. Fortunato himself sat fourth, 17 seconds back. Evenepoel led the GC favourites home 56 seconds down, leaving him sixth overall heading into Stage 3.
A beautifully opportunistic win from Fortunato, who read the hesitation of his rivals perfectly and pounced at exactly the right moment. The GC battle remained wide open with several stages of climbing still to come.
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