Euskaltel strong in Romandie stage 1

On today's unexpectedly hard first stage proper of the Tour de Romandie, Euskaltel placed four riders in the front group to stay in contention on GC.

A climb 30 clicks from the line at the end of the 184,5km leg from Morges to La Chaux-de-Fonds saw the  specialist sprinters dropped, and Wiggins emerged victorious with a powerful late-race surge to edge Lieuwe Westra into second and Paolo Tiralongo into third. 59 riders made up the first group, in which Egoi Martínez, Gorka Verdugo, Mikel Landa and Mikel Astarloza all featured along with the rest of the pre-race favourites. Romain Sicard couldn't quite keep up and finished 11 seconds back.

Stage results:

• (1, Bradley Wiggins (Sky), 4:50:23
• 12, Egoi Martínez, s.t.
• 14, Gorka Verdugo, s.t.
• 18, Mikel Landa, s.t.
• 33, Mikel Astarloza, s.t.
• 69, Romain Sicard, 0:11
• 90, Jorge Azanza, 2:27
• 115, Ricardo García, 7:16
• 155, Alan Pérez, 11:17

Going into tomorrow's stage from Montb to Moutier, Astarloza is the top placed rider overall in 20th place.