PARIS — French champion Dorian Godon took a surprise victory in the Tour de Romandie opening prologue on Tuesday as world champion Tadej Pogacar could finish only fifth.
Godon’s three previous individual victories this year had all come in sprint finishes but he covered the 3.2km course around Villars-sur-Glane in 3min 35sec to finish six seconds clear of Portugal’s Ivo Oliveira and Swede Jakob Soderqvist in second and third respectively.
Pogacar, who two days ago won the 260km-long Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day race for the fourth time, was a further second back in fifth, just behind Swiss champion Mauro Schmid.
It is four-time Tour de France winner Pogacar’s first stage race of the year having previously taken part in just five one-day races – winning four of them.
He is the overwhelming favourite to win the Romandie tour in Switzerland this week in what is his first participation at the event.
It is one of the few major week-long stage races that he is yet to win in his career, along with June’s Tour de Suisse, which he will take part in for the first time before bidding for a record-equalling fifth Tour de France in July.
Pogacar gained time on his main rivals for the overall victory in Romandie as Slovenian compatriot Primoz Roglic, a two-time former winner, was eighth, eight seconds off Godon.
Roglic’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz was 10th, another two seconds further back, with Frenchman Lenny Martinez 25th at 17sec.
Wednesday’s first full stage is a 171km ride around Martigny, where the tough 8.9km-long Ovronnaz climb with an average gradient of 9.8 per cent in the final 40km will provide Pogacar a first chance to distance his rivals.
