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Tudor Pro Cycling’s Maikel Zijlaard put in the perfect efficiency of his profession, powering to his first WorldTour victory within the 2.3km prologue of the Tour de Romandie.
Zijlaard began early within the day earlier than intermittent drizzle made town circuit in Payern treacherous.
Australian Cameron Scott (Bahrain Victorious), one of many final riders to start out, managed to maintain the bike upright and are available inside a second of the Dutchman however was unable to kick him out of the new seat.
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quickstep) completed third simply over two seconds behind Zijlaard.
Zijlaard’s earlier finest end result this yr was seventh place at Nokere Koerse and he surpassed his expectations with the victory.
“It’s loopy – I can not imagine it,” he stated. “I began fairly early, and the final two hours have been the worst two hours of my life due to the stress. I wished this a lot for myself for the group. It’s tremendous good to indicate that we’re able to doing stuff like this and it is a tremendous group.
“I do know I’m fairly good at these items, so I used to be entering into right here with a objective which was the prologue. It’s fairly onerous to imagine but it surely’s actuality and I’m actually glad.
“I do not actually have the phrases. To win right here in my first street to victory for a Swiss group in Switzerland – it’s kind of of a dream.”
How it unfolded
Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Pro Cycling), nephew to ex-pros Michael and Leontin Zijlaard Van Moorsel, set the quickest early time, eclipsing the likes of Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek) within the violent 2.3 kilometre prologue.
Zijlaard went three seconds faster than early starter Dorion Godon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and withstood an enormous effort from Julian Alaphillippe (Soudal-Quickstep), who went 2.3 seconds slower.
Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) was eager to attempt to win the prologue however nearly crashed twice and misplaced all possibilities earlier than the road, coming simply 15 seconds shy after coming to a close to cease.
A little bit of drizzle fell on the later starters, making the twisting, turning course in Payern slippery and forcing riders to take warning, however Cameron Scott (Bahrain-Victorious) managed to return inside one second of Zijlaard’s time, pushing Alaphilippe into third.
Of the general contenders, Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Ayuso completed six to seven seconds down, defending Tour de Romandie champion Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) was eight seconds down, Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) at 9 seconds, with the remaining over 10 seconds behind.
Results
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