Michael Matthews has secured his first victory of the season at the Tour de Romandie’s opening prologue, with a winning time of five minutes and 33 seconds.
Matthews was the only rider to better early stage leader Tom Bohli (BMC). Pre-stage favourite Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) came home in third, on the same time as Bohli.
“I had a rocky start to the season and things were difficult with my broken shoulder but I finally feel like things are on the up again. I didn’t know how well I would feel after the weekend but I gave my best and I’m really pleased that I could finish it off with the win”, said Matthews.
“It was a beautiful course and I had a lot of fun out there today; I really enjoy TT’s, especially ones like these where I can use my power. Tonight we’ll just enjoy this win and tomorrow we’ll focus on what we’re going to do next.”
Richie Porte (BMC) was the last man down the start ramp, but the defending champion never looked like threatening the leaderboard, finishing outside the top 10 in 18th.
Tour de Romandie continues on Wednesday with a lumpy stage one, starting in Fribourg and ending in Delémont 166.6km later.
Tour de Romandie 2018 – prologue results (Fribourg – Fribourg):
| 1 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | 05:33 |
| 2 | Tom Bohli (BMC) | +01” |
| 3 | Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 4 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) | ,, |
| 5 | Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) | +05” |
| 6 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 7 | William Clarke (EF Education First-Drapac) | +06” |
| 8 | Diego Rosa (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 9 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 10 | Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +09” |
