Bobridge reassured by strong ride in Romandie

Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Cervelo) made up for a disappointing result in yesterday’s prologue time trial to finish fourth on the Tour de Romandie’s first road stage. The Australian road race champion managed to get himself into the crucial morning breakaway which ended up staying away from the BMC led peloton. Although Bobridge was unable to get the win, he was satisfied with his overall performance on the stage.

"I’m happy with my first race back. [It was a] good result getting the young riders jersey," Bobridge said via Twitter.

Despite clearly having good form Bobridge felt that he was let down by lack of road riding in yesterday’s technical prologue course. The Aussie has been largely focused on track riding with a view to gold in the 2012 Olympics.

"[Today’s result] made up for a bad prologue. I felt strong, fit and healthy yesterday, but cornered badly with a new bike - and I wasn’t racing on the boards," Bobridge added.

The Garmin-Cervelo rider has had a mixed road season to date. In January he won the national road race title but then put his focus on to the track. This paid off and Bobridge managed to beat Chris Boardman's pursuit record in February as well as taking a couple of world titles on the track. With his efforts on the track rewarded, Bobridge will now be looking to translate some of his good form from the velodrome onto the road.

Bobridge now sits 4th overall 1:31 behind stage winner Pavel Brutt and leads the young rider’s classification by 50 seconds over teammate Peter Stetina.

The Tour de Romandie continues on Thursday with a 171.8 km stage to Romont.