Omer Fraile sprints to Stage 1 Victory at the Tour of Romandie

Omar Fraile (Team Astana) won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday as Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) claimed the overall lead

Fraile edged out Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) in a sprint finish at the end of the 166.6km ride to Delemont to continue Astana’s excellent recent spell with their 14th win of the season.

Matthews, who won Tuesday’s prologue, was dropped on the final climb and lost the yellow jersey to Roglic.

BMC’s Rohan Dennis is second in the overall standings with the same time as Roglic, while defending champion Richie Porte sits 13 seconds adrift in 10th.

“I am so happy with this win,” Fraile said. “After the Classics I did not feel great, but today everything went well and I managed to do a good stage. In general, our team was super today, we did a strong race. After all these climbs we still had many riders in the leading group and my teammates did a big job for me.”

“In the final part of the stage I realized our group can come to the finish for a sprint, so Dario Cataldo and Jakob Fuglsang worked hard to chase all attacks and to bring me in front,” Fraile explained. “I knew Sonny Colbrelli was my biggest rival today since he is a very fast guy. So, I followed his wheel and started my sprint with around 300 meters to go."

“It was a good decision, since at the last 100 meters there was a small uphill. Anyway, this victory brings me and, I think, the whole team a good motivation before the next stages. As I saw, Jakob is in a good form and we will try to help him to reach a high result here.”

VIDEO: 2018 Tour of Romandie Stage 1 Highlights

2018 Tour of Romandie Stage 1 Top 10

1 Omar Fraile (Spa) Astana Pro Team 4:03:42 
2 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida   
3 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates   
4 Rudy Molard (Fra) Groupama-FDJ   
5 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida   
6 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky   
7 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale   
8 Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Wanty-Groupe Gobert   
9 Merhawi Kudus (Eri) Dimension Data   
10 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Quick-Step Floors

2018 Tour of Romandie GC after Stage 1

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) LottoNL-Jumbo 4:09:16 
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team   
3 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:04 
4 Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky 0:00:05 
5 Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale   
6 Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:08 
7 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Sky 0:00:10 
8 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Sky   
9 Pierre Rolland (Fra) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale   
10 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:13