Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-Merida) won the Tour de Romandie prologue in Neuchâtel, beating Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) into second after the 3.87km individual time trial.
Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates) finished third, with Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) fourth. Geraint Thomas (Ineos) completed the top five.
“For sure I have surprised myself but I still believed on that sort of parcours like today I can do a really good result. I just focused on the road and tried to do everything at 100 percent and here, today, I have won the prologue so it is nice,” Tratnik said.
“It’s my first WorldTour win so for sure it’s a really special win. Normally every time Primoz beats me. We’re really good friends but today I beat him so it’s a nice feeling.”
Tomorrow’s stage brings the peloton to Le Chaux-de-Fonds after 170km and some 3400 metres of total climbing.
Tour de Romandie 2019 – prologue results:
| 1 | Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-Merida) | 05:06 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | +27” |
| 3 | Tom Bohli (UAE Team Emirates) | +57” |
| 4 | Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) | +08” |
| 5 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 6 | Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 7 | Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 8 | Carlos Betancur (Movistar) | +01’00” |
| 9 | Maciej Bodnar (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’05” |
| 10 | Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) | +01’26” |
