Team loses jersey; Verdugo 6th overall

As I feared, Euskaltel were not able to hang on to the leader's jersey in today's first stage proper of the Tour de Romandie. The team never really took control of the pack and looked ready to relinquish the lead right from the start, allowing a strong four-man break to get too big a gap early on. Eventually BMC decided to act and were quickly followed by a few other teams, Euskaltel among them. But there was no catching the quartet up ahead on the last cat. 1 climb to the finish line in Leysin. Power-house Brutt took both the win and the overall lead while the group of favourites came in 2:05 down. In that group was the excellent Gorka Verdugo who rose to sixth on GC as a result, but Castroviejo was not present. The birthday boy had to let go of the first group inside the last 3 clicks and ended up losing 42 seconds to Verdugo, Evans, Vino and Spilak's group. He's now 31st overall at a full 2:42 and seemingly out of contention for the final rankings. Verdugo is everything but though, and will be looking to climb even higher on GC as the race unfolds. Stage results:

• 23, Gorka Verdugo, 2:05
  
• 39, Jonathan Castroviejo, 2:47
  
• 62, Iván Velasco, 3:38
  
• 73, Egoi Martínez, 4:21
  
• 92, Jon Izagirre, s.t.
  
• 104, Alan Pérez, 7:46
  
• 116, Amets Txurruka, 10:42
  
• 119, Koldo Fernández, s.t.