Chris Froome got his title defence at the Tour de Romandie off to the best possible start as his Sky team emerged as the strongest in the opening team time trial. Being the final team on the course, the Brits managed to beat Orica-GreenEDGE by just 0.6 seconds to put Geraint Thomas in the leader’s jersey for the second time in his career.

After his setbacks earlier in the season, Chris Froome has done nothing to hide that he aims to find back to his winning ways in the Tour de Romandie. Being the two-time defending champion, he has the chance to make history in the mountainous race as he can become the first rider to win the race three times in a row.

Today he and his Sky teammates proved that they are fully ready to defend their position and make it four wins in a row after Bradley Wiggins started the streak in 2012. With a great performance, the team managed to win the opening team time trial after a nail-biting finale.

Orica-GreenEDGE had selected a team with lots of firepower for the opening stage and had made it clear that they aimed at taking the first leader’s jersey in the race. With big engines Svein Tuft, Michael Hepburn, Brett Lancaster and Sam Bewley, they had a roster perfectly suited to the flat first part of the course and went into the stage as the favourites.

Despite suffering a bit on the late climb, the team managed to keep five riders together to cross the line in what was clearly the best time at the halfway point in the stage. Stopping the clock in 21.19, they had gone 40 seconds faster than previous leaders Cannondale-Garmin and seemed to be on their way to putting local hero Michael Albasini into the leader’s jersey.

Key rivals like Etixx-QuickStep and BMC were both off the pace and only a very homogeneous Katusha team managed to get to within 10 seconds of their time. When Astana stopped the clock in 21.36 to move into fourth, only Sky could prevent Albasini from getting a stint in yellow.

However, Sky were on a good ride and after Danny Pate and Nicolas Roche had dropped off, Froome and Geraint Thomas set a fast pace on the climb. The latter powered down the descent to cross the line in first position, stopping the clock in a time that was just 0.6 seconds faster than Orica-GreenEDGE’s.

The performance allowed Thomas to take yellow after the opening stage while Froome got his race off to a great start, gaining time on all his rivals. He is now four seconds ahead of Simon Spilak (Katusha), 14 seconds ahead of Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep), 17 seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), 22 seconds ahead of Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), 24 seconds ahead of Mathias Frank (IAM), 40 seconds ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar), 41 seconds ahead of Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and a massive 1.22 ahead of the Ag2r pair of Jean-Christophe Peraud and Romain Bardet.

Thomas will wear the yellow jersey in tomorrow’s first road stage which is a very challenging affair. The stage includes four big climbs, including a difficult category 2 ascent in the finale. The summit comes just 17km from the finish before a fast descent and a short flat section leads to the finish on a day when a small group is likely to sprint for the win.

A tricky opener

The 2015 Tour de Romandie started with a 19.2km team time trial that brought the riders from Vallee de Joux to Juraparc along a mostly flat and non-technical course. In the end, however, the riders had to tackle a small 1km climb and even though it only had a maximum gradient of 4.5%, it was expected to test the homogeneity and cohesiveness of the team.

On a cold and dry day in Switzerland, Europcar were the first team to start the stage and they knew that it was all about limiting their losses on the opening day. They did well as Pierre Rolland led his teammates across the line to stop the clock in 22.26 to take the early lead.

Best time for Cannondale-Garmin

They didn’t get much chance to enjoy their time in the hot seat though as the next team was faster. LottoNL-Jumbo posted a time of 22.14 to put Tom Van Asbroeck into the provisional leader’s jersey.

Cannondale-Garmin were expected to do even better and they fully lived up to expectations. With Ramunas Navarduaskas doing a massive job in the finale, they became the first team to go faster than 22 minutes when the Lithuanian led them across the line in 21.59.

Lampre-Merida narrowly miss out

Giant-Alpecin were not expected to feature in the top end of the standings and they were slightly off the pace when Thierry Hupond led his teammates across the line in 22.09. More was expected from Lampre-Merida who hoped to get Rui Costa’s race off to a good start but they narrowly missed out on the lead when the former world champion was the first to cross the line in 22.00.

Tinkoff-Saxo had definitely hoped for a better performance than a time of 22.14 but they suffered on the climb where Rafal Majka made the team explode before Christopher Juul-Jensen led the team across the line. Trek were expected to take the early lead but they narrowly missed out on the top position when Giacomo Nizzolo led his teammates across the line in 22.01.

Orica-GreenEDGE crush the opposition

Lotto Soudal had a difficult stage as Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Maxime Monfort, Bart De Clercq and Greg Henderson had to wait for Sander Armee on the climb. As a consequence, they set the slowest time when Monfort led his teammates across the line in 22.31.

Ag2r did even worse though as the clock stopped in 22.41 when Carlos Betancur was the first rider to cross the line. However, all eyes were now on favourites Orica-GreenEDGE who had set the best time at the intermediate check. The Australians fully lived up to expectations when Albasini led his teammates across the line in 21.19 to go a massive 40 seconds faster than Cannondale-Garmin.

Great ride by Katusha

FDJ did a surprisingly good ride as Steve Morabito led them across the line in 21.41 to slot into seconds. However, it was the Katusha team who caught many by surprise when Ilnur Zakarin led his teammates to the finish in a time of 21.24 to take second.

Etixx-QuickStep had hoped to confirm their status as one of the strongest for the discipline but their time of 21.33 was only good enough for third when Maxime Bouet was the first rider to reach the finish. IAM got the race off to a solid start as Stef Clement stopped the clock in 21.43 to slot into fifth.

Sky take the win

Nairo Quintana had definitely hoped for a better start than a time of 21.59 but that was all that Movistar could manage when Winner Anacona led them across the line. At the same time, BMC suffered on the climb as Rohan Dennis, Damiano Caruso, Darwin Atapuma and Danilo Wyss had to wait for Manuel Senni which cost important time. At the finish, Deniis led his teammates across the line in 21.38 to slot into fourth.

Astana did slightly better as Nibali led his teammates to the finish in 21.36 and so it was only Sky left on the course. The Brits came away with the goods as Thomas and his teammates stopped the clock in 21.19 to beat Orica-GreenEDGE by 0.6 second.