Tour de Romandie prologue: Matthews celebrates first win of the season

Cycling: Michael Matthews (Sunweb) clinched his first win of the season today at the Tour de Romandie. The Australian surprisingly won the prologue in front of the Swiss Tom Bohli (BMC).

Tour de Romandie 2018: Not an easy start

The Tour de Romandie kicked off today in Fribourg with a prologue of just 4,02 kilometers. From Place Notre-Dame, the riders sped towards Place Georges-Python. Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) started the race at 15:13 PM, and despite the short distance, it proved to be anything but easy. True to the saying "brevity is the soul of wit," the prologue was not a leisurely warm-up. The first part of the time trial was rather technical, with several tight corners, while the final section featured a climb with gradients of up to 12 percent.

Matthews with surprising victory

Matthias Brändle (Trek-Segafredo) had hoped to be in contention for the win today, but unfortunately, it wasn't to be. The Austrian crashed during the warm-up and was unable to start the Tour de Romandie. The first noteworthy time was set by Swiss rider Tom Bohli (BMC). Rider after rider struggled to match the top time before Michael Matthews (Sunweb) finally broke the deadlock very late in the race. The Dutchman undercut the time by a full second and ultimately celebrated the stage victory. Even the general classification contenders couldn't match his best time. The strongest rider was Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo), who finished third, just one second behind the winner. Geraint Thomas (Sky) was five seconds back, and Richie Porte (BMC) a full 14 seconds behind the stage winner.

Tour de Romandie 2018: The decision will be made on Friday & Saturday

The first day of the Tour de Romandie resulted in only minor changes to the overall standings. Following today's prologue, five varied stages are scheduled for the coming days, which are sure to shake up the general classification. The mountain time trial on Friday and the mountain stage on Saturday will be particularly interesting for the overall standings. Last year's winner, Richie Porte (BMC), will have to contend with riders including Primož Roglič (LottoNL-Jumbo-Visma) and Geraint Thomas (Sky). We can also look forward to seeing the young Egan Bernal (Sky) and the German Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe). The Tour de Romandie will potentially conclude with a mass sprint in Geneva on Sunday. If he navigates the mountains well, Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) is considered a strong contender for victory on the final stage – and, of course, Michael Matthews has also been added to the list of contenders since today.