Signals aplenty in Romandie

A race that is often overlooked due to its placement on the calendar, Anthony Tan found the 64th edition of the Tour de Romandie one of the most intriguing in years. Just don’t tell him it was a surprise.

The Tour de Romandie, a race that due to its placement between the end of the Spring Classics and the start of the Giro d'Italia and that I first covered in 2005, has the tendency to get a little overlooked.

Not this year.

'Surprise', 'surprise move' or 'surprise win' are annoying and overused terms in sports reporting and cycling is no different, but many of these vocab-limited commentators can't helped but be perpetually amazed by the feats of Slovak sensation Peter Sagan this season.

'Shocking' is perhaps a better word to describe the 20-year-old wunderkind's neo-pro year, whose bricklayer physique, gorilla-like hands and preternatural strength appear to make him better suited to woodchopping than pedalling circles all day long.

Despite being a junior world mountain bike champ in 2008, when a stagiaire contract with Quick Step last season bore no fruit, the knock-back cut Sagan up so bad, he decided to quit and find a 'real job'. His family told him to keep the faith and he eventually signed with Liquigas-Doimo for two seasons, which was recently extended to three.

After how he's dumfounded and delighted the cycling world in the space of four months, Liquigas probably want to sign him up till the day he retires.

And so the man who began his junior cycling days on a diet of plain water and kitted out wearing tennis shoes and a T-shirt came within a second of taking the Tour de Romandie prologue before winning the following day's stage in a bunch sprint – as if he hadn't shown enough versatility already.

The headlines from Switzerland didn't end there.

The media throng waited less than 24 hours before Mark Cavendish's two-fingered salute on Stage 2 sent ripples of red faces throughout the cycling community. Whether in time he truly acknowledges and understands the damage caused by his uncalled-for gestures and headline-grabbing though cringe-worthy remarks, is a subject worth broaching.

According to Cavendish, his intention was to "send a message to commentators and journalists who don't know jack-s*** about cycling". Au contraire, Monsieur Cavendish: I think it sent a message to the world that Mark Cavendish knows jack-s*** about decorum and respect.

The day after, a 23.4 kilometre time trial and not overly difficult, HTC-Columbia management decided to pull the sprinting prodigy out of the race.

A bold move and a smart one at that – but why did they let him ride another stage before doing so? (email from boss Bob Stapleton: "Cav', you've been a naughty boy and because you're likely to get dropped the next two mountain stages, we'll let you ride the time trial before pulling you out, to make it look like we're mad at you. BTW, you're still not thinking of joining Team Sky, are you... You know we still love you and you're riding the Tour and Greipel isn't, right?")

It left me musing whether it was more clever PR-stunt than disciplinary action.

It took Cavendish's team-mate Michael Rogers, who has experienced one of the most auspicious starts to the year in yonks, to put his squad back in the good books, taking the race lead after finishing fourth in the TT – to none other than another promising neo-pro and an Aussie no less, Richie Porte.

For the 25-year-old Tassie boy, the win was, well, ahem, a surprise. (There's that damn word again.)

But do you know what was really flabbergasting? The rider that finished second, Alejandro Valverde, was leading Porte by half a minute after 7.1km (in terms of time, roughly the halfway mark) – only to lose out by the margin he led by in the end! Over 23 clicks, to win by 26 seconds from such a world-class field – Vladimir Karpets, Rogers and Denis Menchov finished behind Valverde and within five seconds of each other – made Richie's ride a ripper.

In Italian, the plural form of 'door' is 'porte' (though pronounced port-tey, so you could say he blew the doors wide open to what promises to be a highly successful and entertaining pro career.

Valverde's overall victory Sunday that came courtesy of his climbing prowess and finishing speed (thought to be two opposing forces before he came along) wasn't nearly as unpopular or unwelcome as Vinokourov's jeered win at Liege the week before.

Still, it would've been sure nice to see Rogers, who ended a disappointing fourth, take a big confidence-booster before he rides Cali and gives the Tour de France one of perhaps two or three last cracks.

All going well, I reckon this is the year Dodger can slip back into La Grande Boucle's top 10; if he's flying, maybe a top-five, even.

How about flanked by Contador and Cadel on the Champs-Elysees? I don't think so – that's just a leettle too ambitious – although I'd love to be proven wrong.

No, come July, I reckon Leapin' Levi Leipheimer may well be The Shack's best bet. And I think Lance already knows it.