Ethan Hayter fastest at Tour de Romandie prologue

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) powered to victory in the short and technical individual time trial prologue at the Tour de Romandie.

The British National Time Trial Champion beat two-time world champion and favorite Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma) by four seconds to claim his second victory of the season.

Hayter took the leader's green jersey, on the opening stage one of the six-day race.

The dead flat course was only 5.1km through the streets of Lausannve in Switzerland with some tight corners to negotiate.

German Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), set the early fastest time of 6m 5s, averaging in excess of 50km/h.

Matteo Sobrero (BikeExchange-Jayco) nearly beta him, the Italian time trial champion was second by a fraction of a millisecond.

However the British national champion and Ineos Grenadiers rider set a blistering time of 5m 52s. 

Last year's overall winner Geraint Thomas who took an early advantage over his rivals, nine seconds ahead of Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and over 10 seconds ahead of Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious).

VIDEO: 2022 Tour de Romandie Prologue Highlights

2022 Tour de Romandie Prologue Top 10

1. Ethan Hayter (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 5-52-79
2. Rohan Dennis (Aus) Jumbo-Visma, at 4s
3. Félix Grosschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 10s
4. Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 10s
5. Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 13s
6. Matteo Sobrero (Ita) BikeExchange-Jayco, at 13s
7. Ethan Vernon (Gbr) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, at 14s
8. Georg Steinhauser (Ger) EF Education-Easy Post
9. Mauro Schmid (Swi) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl
10. Juan Ayuso (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, all at s.t.