Castroviejo stuns in Romandie prologue

Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) claimed the most important victory of his budding professional career, careening through the short prologue course of the Tour de Romandie in a time of 3:40.42, 27 hundredths of a second quicker than American Taylor Phinney of BMC.

The Spaniard from Getxo is in his second year at the ProTour level, and before today his best result at the top level was a second place in a time trial at the Vuelta Asturias last year.

An eighth place in the stage 7 time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico hinted that the soon-to-be 24-year-old had promise in the sport's elite ranks.

Yet few expected Castroviejo, who turns 24 tomorrow, to top short-course time trial specialists such as Phinney, the reigning US time trial champion and a former world pursuit champion.

"I'm very happy! Tomorrow is my birthday, so it's been an amazing gift, we will double the celebration," said Castroviejo. "We came into today's time trial to do our best and rank high in the GC. After what happened this afternoon, my mentality has changed, now I can go out and win. I've always been very good at time trials, but to win a prologue like the Tour de Romandie is a major leap."

The day was not without incident for the Basque rider, who said a crash on the way to the start ramp provided him the adrenaline boost he needed to go fast. "I also had the time of Gorka Verdugo as a reference. He was the eleventh fastest time and his time checks were very important in the final outcome.

"It was a time trial for specialists, with technical turns, but which was won on straights, with plenty of power. The last stretch was short, and I gave everything and it has come out great."

The 2.9km course in Martigny was flat, tight and technical, and posed such a high risk for spectacular failure that the GC contenders as a whole seemed to take a much more conservative approach.

It was a day for the young and reckless, with Castroviejo, Phinney and third placed Leigh Howard (HTC-Highroad) posting the fastest times, and five of the top 10 on the stage were under-25 riders.

"There were probably places where I could make up some time, but at the end of the day, it's just so crazy with everything just flying at you," Phinney said. "The cobbled sections actually kind of frightened me before the race, but when I was on them, I just went full-tilt into it and it ended up being pretty good."

24-year-old Denis Van Winden (Rabobank) set the fastest time early on, and he remained in the hot seat until RadioShack's Geoffroy Lequatre went more than a second quicker.

Lequatre was overtaken by Howard, who became the first rider to break 3:42, but he had only a few minutes to enjoy his time on the top of the leader board until Phinney came in half a second quicker.

Phinney, who has missed out on a month of racing due to knee issues, looked to be back to top form, but the 20-year-old was soon disappointed to see his time beaten by the little-known Spaniard.

"Ouch... I wanted that!," Phinney said on Twitter.

Castroviejo will wear the race leader's jersey into the second stage, where the sprinters will look to overtake the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider. HTC-Highroad, with both Mark Renshaw and Howard in the top 10, have the best options for sprint bonuses.

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