Tour de Romandie: Geraint Thomas up to fourth as Primoz Roglic wins stage one

2nd May 2019 | Source: BBC

Primoz Roglic (centre) won the sprint from a select group to take the race lead

Team Ineos' Geraint Thomas moved up to fourth overall at the Tour de Romandie despite failing in a late solo attack on stage one, which was won by Slovenia's Primoz Roglic.

Tour de France winner Thomas, 32, kicked away inside the final kilometre but could not hold off the chasers.

Roglic beat France's David Gaudu in the sprint to take the overall lead in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

The race is Team Ineos' first outing since taking over from Team Sky.

The new team and kit were officially launched in Yorkshire on Wednesday, with the British outfit wearing a black one-off kit at the six-day Tour de Romandie.

Thomas finished fifth in Tuesday's prologue and moved up to fourth, 13 seconds off Roglic, after overnight leader Jan Tratnik was dropped during a frantic final 50km of the 168.4km stage on Wednesday.

After the breakaway was caught, Emanuel Buchmann attacked with 25km to go, before Thomas responded 10km later and was able to bridge across to the German alongside Gaudu and Canada's Michael Woods.

All four were caught with 5km remaining before Thomas launched again, only to be swept up as Roglic won the sprint from a select group of 20 riders.

Stage one results

1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo Visma) 4hrs 15mins 18secs

2. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) Same time

3. Rui Costa (Por/UAE Team Emirates)

4. Michael Woods (Can/EF Education First)

5. Damien Howson (Aus/Mitchelton-Scott)

General classification after stage one

1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo Visma) 4hrs 20mins 15secs

2. Rui Costa (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +10ses

3. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +12secs

4. Geraint Thomas (GB/Team Ineos) +13secs