Julian Alaphilippe came within seconds of a victorious return from injury on Tuesday by slipping into third place in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie, behind the Dutchman Maikel Zijlaard and the Australian Cameron Scott.
Injured at the beginning of March to the head of the left fibula during the Strade Bianche, the 31-year-old Frenchman had not raced since the Tour of Flanders and arrived without ambition in the general of this 77th edition of the French-speaking race, an ideal resumption before attacking on May 4 his first Giro.
But on the flat and very winding 2.28 km traced in Payerne, the double world champion (Soudal-Quick Step) only gave up 2 sec 31/100th to the astonishing Dutchman from the Swiss team Tudor, who won at the age of 24, his first success on the World Tour after 2 min 55 sec 43/100th of effort, and took the yellow jersey.
Former track rider, team pursuit world champion in 2019 and starting among the last, Cameron Scott (Bahrain Victorious) inserted himself between the two riders to finish 90/100th behind Zijlaard.
In icy air, the nervous route trapped the Briton Ethan Hayter (118th at 43 sec), three-time stage winner of the event surprised by a turn, while his compatriot crowned last year, Adam Yates, gave way a little over 8 seconds, taking 47th place.
Among the other favorites, the Spaniard Juan Ayuso is in 28th place at 6 seconds and the Russian Alexandr Vlasov is in 39th place at 7 seconds, while the young French prodigy Lenny Martinez is in 26th place at 6 seconds.
The Tour de Romandie continues on Wednesday with the first stage, contested over 165.7 km and 2,617 m of positive altitude difference between Château d’Oex, in the Vaudois Alps, and Fribourg. It will end on Sunday in Vernier, near Geneva.
