Intro:

Switzerland's Michael Albasini (Orica Greenedge) won a shortened first stage of the Tour de Romandie in a sprint finish at Sion on Wednesday (30th April), with Poland's Michal Kwiatkowski retaining the leader's yellow jersey.

Script:

The first road stage of the Tour de Romandie was shortened to just 88 kilometres (55 miles) on Wednesday, after heavy snow on the Simplon Pass forced the race organisers to abandon the 2000 metre category one climb.

The revised start took off from Brigerbad, with only one category two climb for the riders to negotiate.

The main breakaway of the day held the lead from the 4th kilometre to 27 kilometres from the finish, but they were never a real threat to the peloton.

On the climb, Johann Tschopp picked up the King of the Mountain points but Astana’s Vincenzo Nibali stretched out a lead on the descent.

The Giro d'Italia champion held a 25 second advantage with seven kilometres to go but he was caught with under 2km remaining.

Europcar’s Thomas Voeckler looked to catch the stronger sprinters out, but he too was overhauled and Michael Albasini of Orica Greenedge took the stage win in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 11 seconds.

Michal Kwiatkowski finished in the main pack and but retained the leader's yellow jersey after winning the prologue.

The Pole holds a five second lead over Albasini and Ramunas Navardauskas.

Stage two takes the field on another mountain route between Le Bouveret and Aigle, a distance of 180.2 kilometres (112 miles).