Defending Champion Primoz Roglic takes Tour of Romandie lead

Defending champion Primoz Roglic continued the early Slovenian domination of Tour of Romandie when he won a sprint in the opening stage to La Chaux-de-Fonds

The Jumbo rider took the leader's yellow jersey from compatriot Jan Tratnik, of Bahrain-Merida, who won the prologue the day before.

Roglic was part of a 20-rider group that survived the last of the four second category climbs with 30 kilometres left in a lively 168.4 kilometre run through Switzerland from Neuchatel.

He edged 22-year-old Frenchman David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ with Portuguese rider Rui Costa of UAE, who had done much of the work to drive the breakaway, third.

The first 20 all finished in 4hrs, 15 mins 18sec and Roglic collected a 10-second bonus to gain a clear overall lead.

Welsh Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas, riding for the renamed Team Ineos for the first time, was part of the winning group and looked in strong form as he rolled in 20th place and is 13 seconds behind Roglic in overall leaderboard.

On Thursday, the stage will skirt Lake Neuchatel on a 174.4 kilometre run to Morges on Lake Geneva.

VIDEO: 2019 Tour de Romandie Stage 1 Highlights

2019 Tour de Romandie Stage 1 Top 10

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:15:18 
2 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ   
3 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates   
4 Michael Woods (Can) EF Education First   
5 Damien Howson (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott   
6 Carl Fredrik Hagen (Nor) Lotto Soudal   
7 Eduardo Sepulveda (Arg) Movistar Team   
8 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team   
9 Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe   

2019 Tour de Romandie GC after Stage 1

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:20:15 
2 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:10 
3 David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:12 
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:13 
5 Carlos Betancur (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:14 
6 Felix Großschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:15 
7 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:17 
8 James Knox (GBr) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:18 
9 Damien Howson (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott   
10 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:19