Meersman wins second stage at Tour de Romandie

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Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) struck again in Payerne winning the stage 3 sprint from a select group of riders.

The Belgian beat Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), who led out the sprint.

"I was disappointed about my sprint yesterday and wanted to make it up today for everybody - my teammates especially," Meersman said. "They did a great job today, did a perfect lead-out and I'm really happy with my second victory at Tour de Romandie."

Adriano Malori (Lampre-Merida) attacked with seven kilometres to go but was caught with 400 metres remaining after a huge effort by Meersman's teammate Tony Martin.

"It maybe looked easy in the final but it was not so easy," said Meersman. "With two kilometers to go I knew the guys had something left in the tank to catch Malori ahead. Tony Martin took me to the last 600 or 700 meters. It was perfect."

Team Sky controlled the race for most of the stage, with Chris Froome retaining the overall race lead. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) is second at six seconds, with Meersman moving up to third overall, at nine seconds, thanks to time bonuses.

Meersman, however, has no GC ambitions at the Tour de Romandie. "As for tomorrow, I'm going to help the boys now" said Meersman. "Before coming here I had three stages in mind. The first stage I won, then yesterday I was third, and today I won again. So, I am happy."