It is a short prologue that kicks of the 2012 Tour of Romandie and the three big guns Dave Z, Rogers and Phinney are all here to test themselves in the opener. It could be quite a prize because whilst Zabriskie and Rogers would be long odds to win the race the winner today could keep the leaders jersey until the longer time trial on stage 4.
David Zabriskie
is one of the early starters and he sets a time way faster than anyone else can manage early doors.
The time is 5.22 from the American TT champion and former two time world TT champion. It really was an outstanding run from the wacky Pendleton's rider with only young Frenchman Hugues Mottin
able to get to within ten seconds of Zabriskie with a ride of 5.30.
It is Nestle who seemed to have cracked it though as they place another rider on the virtual podium in Jacob Fiedler
The 25 year old German sets 5.28 just six seconds behind Zabriskie, this starts speculation that one of the later starting big guns could feasibly topple the American.
Michael Ford
also sets a time six seconds back from Zabriskie.
The Australian TT champion is hundreths of a second behind Fiedler for provisional third.
He took the national TT jersey from the absent champion, but his predecessor Michael Rogers
is present here!
Rogers vs Zabriskie and here it is Rogers who loses the duel unable to get close to the 5.22 magic mark set. Rogers does move into to second however with 5.25.
It looks a good time to be on the course now as we get into the GC riders as outstanding Dutch talent Martijn Keizer
moves into provisional third.
He sets a time one second faster than Fiedler and Ford, but knows he is unlikely to hold even the young riders jersey with the World TT champion and duel U23 champion Taylor Phinney
on the course.
The 22 year old just gets faster and faster as the course goes on and Wikipedia fans let out a big cheer as Phinney manages to eclipse his former teammate Zabriskie by a fraction of a second.
So a new leader with Zabriskie second and Rogers third, a nice start for Phinney.
The other favourites are content to put in decent times, the best of the rest of the GC men are
Thomas Dekker
Aleksandr Pluchkin
and Robert Gesink
Dekker and Pluchkin matching each other with times of 5.32, with Gesink one second faster with a time of 5.31
