• Tour of Romandie

Wiggins powers to stage victory in Switzerland

ESPN staff
April 25, 2012
Bradley Wiggins won the opening stage of the Tour of Romandie © PA Photos
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Bradley Wiggins fired a statement of intent to his rivals ahead of this year's Tour de France as he stormed to victory on the first stage of the Tour of Romandie.

In 11th place after Tuesday's prologue, won by Team Sky colleague Geraint Thomas, Wiggins showed a sprint finish to rival team-mate Mark Cavendish as he claimed victory over the 184.5km stage between Morges and La Chaux-de-Fonds.

When Cavendish was dropped on a climb with 30km to go, Wiggins filled in for his team-mate as he won a bunch sprint ahead of Dutchman Lieuwe Westra and Italy's Paolo Tiralongo.

With Thomas still adapting from his recent successes on the track, he too struggled on the climb in the Swiss Alps as he handed the leader's jersey to Wiggins, with team-mate Michael Rogers seven seconds back in the general classification.

"I had a lot of adrenaline after I punctured with 25km to go," Wiggins said. "When that happened the boys dropped back for me and did a fantastic job.

"Then in the final I was kind of on my own and marshalling everything and I just wanted to pay them back for everything they'd done, they were incredible and I've got them to thank and it was really nice to be able to finish it off like that.

"I want to win Romandy, that's for sure. I'll take what I can every day and it's really nice to win a sprint like this because normally I only ever really win time trials."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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