Tour de Romandie (Prol.)

Slippery roads ruin the chances by the last riders to depart in the opening prologue, the Basque not able to get a result as brilliant as last year's win. Plaza takes 24th

The feared rain for today’s prologue in the 66th edition of the Tour de Romandie came during the race over the 3.3-kilometer course in Lausanne. The water on the Swiss lake made presence just before Jonathan Castroviejo, winner of last year’s opening ITT in Martigny, took the start, as the rain would become decisive for the final outcome, with no riders from the last fourty to take off the start ramp, theoretically those set to contest the win, able to make the first eight of the day.

This way, Welsh specialist Geraint Thomas (SKY) make his early best time count to endorse into the first yellow jersey, while Movistar Team took all their eight riders in a 9-second margin, all of them at the first half of the leaderboard but far from the first ten, with Spaniard Rubén Plaza as the top performer in 24th, 10 seconds behind Thomas and two before Castroviejo. The real event will start on Wednesday with stage one: a 184-km route from Morges to La Chaux-de-Fonds with continuous ups and downs in the final 90k, featuring the climbs of Haut de la Côte (Cat. 2) and Le Communal de la Sagne (Cat. 3) before a likely bunch sprint giving 10-6-4 bonus seconds.