Tour de Romandie (prologue)

Colombian finishes just 5" off first yellow jersey by Tratnik (TBM) in excellent effort against big specialists, following strong Ardennes classics.

In his best form, he’s one of the biggest talents in Latin American cycling, and Carlos Betancur (Movistar Team) again proved so on Tuesday, on a route that -even if more suited to his characteristics than others of the like- wasn’t as much to his liking as hillier road races. A strong display from the Antioquia native took him up to 8th in the 3.9km prologue of the 2019 Tour de Romandía in Neuchâtel, on a mixture of long straights for specialists, technical sections and two little climbs -including a cobbled one- from which the Colombian took good advantage.

#TDR2019: Muy, muy buen prólogo de @cabg1989. El antioqueño es 2º prov. en meta con 5'11", a tan solo un segundo y dieciséis centésimas de todo un Tony Martin (TJV). ? pic.twitter.com/WiqZ9uZV8L

— Movistar Team (@Movistar_Team) April 30, 2019

The 5’11” time posted by Betancur put him into 2nd provisional -just one second behind former, multiple ITT World Champion Tony Martin (TJV)- and helped him resist strong ahead of the 50-some riders still to start after him. Slovenia’s Jan Tratnik (TBM), the day’s winner with 5’06”, and top-class names such as Primoz Roglic (TJV), Tom Bohli (UAD), Geraint Thomas (INS) and Alex Dowsett (TKA) were the only ones able to go quicker than ‘La Ronca’, already in form in the Ardennes classics, most notably in Liège (15th).

The Swiss races goes for hilly point-to-point stages starting on Wednesday, with a route perfect for attackers and climbers on stage one, featuring five Cat-2 climbs en route to La Chaux-de-Fonds (168km).

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto