Eddie Dunbar was once again to the fore today at the Tour de Romandie; riding on the front for much of stage 3 in defence of the yellow jersey of team mate Rohan Dennis.
And while Dunbar and Ineos Grenadiers team mate Filippo Ganna slipped back late in the day, they did so after putting in big performances for the team. Dunbar rode hard on the front early on the final climb - the cat 1 La Vue-des-Alpes - and caused significant damage.
As riders were dropped off the back, Rein Taaramae (Intermarche Wanty Gobert Materiaux) was the only survivor from the day's six-man breakaway still out front, though he was soon reeled in thanks in large part to Dunbar's pace-setting early on the climb.
His and the rest of the team's work meant the Ineos Grenadiers big three - Dennis, Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte - only had to look after themselves for a short time at the end of the stage; up over the top of the climb and down into the finish 15km away.
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Indeed, it was Dennis in the yellow jersey who looked most impressive in the final kilometres, stringing out the bunch to deter attacks before trying to mix it up off the front and cause a split with Thomas to gain some time in the closing stages.
In the end, the honours were settled in a bunch sprint at the end of the 165.7km stage from La Neuveville Saint-Imier; the difficulty of the day reflected by the fact the bunch numbered just 36 riders on the line.
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The victory was taken by Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious), though Patrick Bevin (Israel Start-Up Nation) almost beat him and is marking himself out in this race as a surprisingly good sprinter.
The Kiwi rider, who was so impressive when he rode Rás Tailteann in 2014, initially went to pass Colbrelli on the inside in the final sprint, only for the Italian to move to his left slightly.
Bevin was then forced to pause for a moment and move to the Italian's outside, and despite that interruption he still very nearly pipped him. Marc Hirschi (UAE-Team Emirates) has once again underlined his improving form, with 3rd place on today's stage.
With all of the general classification men finishing in the bunch today there was no major change in the leading positions. Australian Dennis is still leading the race, though Bevin has moved up to 2nd place at eight seconds thanks to his time bonuses on the sprints today and yesterday. Thomas and Porte have each moved down one place overall and are now 3rd and 4th, both nine seconds off team mate Dennis.
After his work today Dunbar finished the stage in 68th at 4:21, riding into the finish with Ganna with the team having withstood attacks up the final climb, most notably from the likes of Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma).
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