Tour de Romandie: Felline wins prologue

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Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) took a surprise victory in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie in Aigle. The Italian mastered the wet conditions that affected much of the day, racing around the 4.8km course in a time of 5:57.

Felline went off a third of the way through the pack and had a lengthy wait in the hot seat before his victory was confirmed. Alex Dowsett (Movistar) was the last rider down the ramp and came closest to unseating Felline, but missed the mark by just two seconds. Orica-Scott's Alex Edmondson rounded out the stage podium at seven seconds behind Felline.

On and off rain throughout the afternoon meant that none of the riders got a proper run at the course, but some had better conditions than others. Many hoped that the rain would hold off until later in the afternoon and that was evident by the bulk of general classification contenders heading down the ramp earlier in the day.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) was the first of the GC hopefuls to put in his effort. Short efforts like this are not a favourite for Froome but he has won the opening time trial at Romandie before, although that was a much hillier course. It wasn't meant to be for Froome, who went 20 seconds slower than the fastest rider at the time, Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo).

Roglic would be superseded by the rider following Froome, Edmondson. The Australian has been enjoying a superb spring campaign and he went two seconds quicker than Roglic with his time of 6:04.

Edmondson would have plenty of time to cool off and relax as the next batch of riders went through. Several other GC favourites such as Richie Porte (BMC Racing) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) completed the course around 20 to 30 seconds slower than the young Edmondson.

Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), who is targeting the Giro d'Italia next month, lost a second to Porte in his time trial. He was left to wonder what might have been after an early crash, and his frustration at the end was visible as he threw his helmet down in disgust when he arrived back at the team bus. It's not the first time van Garderen has fallen afoul of the opening stage in Romandie. The American hit the deck during the 2014, which resulted in a fractured hip. He will be hoping the injuries are purely superficial on this occasion.

Felline, meanwhile, was showing everybody how it was done. The Trek-Segafredo rider was the first to drop under the six-minute mark with his effort. That would effectively be it for the contest for the stage win as riders tried and failed to get under that magic six-minute time. Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) and Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) were among the best-placed GC hopefuls. The pair lost 12 seconds to Felline and put themselves into prime position for the mountains to come. Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo) also had a good run as one of the last to go off, stopping the clock 15 seconds slower than his teammate.

Dowsett was the last rider off the ramp, wearing the number one in place of his absent teammate, and defending champion, Nairo Quintana. The Movistar rider was seven hundredths slower than Felline at the first split, but a mistake on the final corner made sure that he wasn't going to make up that lost time.

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