63rd Tour de Romandie - UPT

Switzerland, April 28-May 3, 2009

Photography

Stage 5 - May 3: Aubonne – Genève, 150.5km

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Images by Edward A Madden/www.dotcycling.com

Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) at the start.
Daniel Martin (Garmin-Slipstream) in the Irish Champion's jersey.
Danilo Wyss, Marcel Wyss and Dan Martin lead out the peloton.
Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) rolled in mid-pack but had his moment on the stage when he attacked the day's big climb and split the peloton.
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) on the podium after winning his second stage.
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) takes the sprint ahead of Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream).
It was not going to be Mark Cavendish's day. But the Team Columbia-Highroad rider did not come into Tour de Romandie with top form.
Philippe Gilbert (Silence Lotto)
Gregory Rast (Astana) secured the green points jersey.
Freire leads as the bunch screams to the line.
Swiss Revelation Marcel Wyss
The best team prize was consolation for Alejandro Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne squad.
The overall top three: Rein Taaramae (Cofidis), Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) and Vladimir Karpets (Katusha).

Stage 4 - May 2: Estavayer-le-Lac - Sainte-Croix, 157.5km

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Images by Edward A Madden/www.dotcycling.com

France's Jerome Coppel (Française Des Jeux) finished five minutes down.
David Moncoutie (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne) leads on the first climb.
German Tony Martin (Team Columbia - Highroad) moved in to eighth place.
Belgian Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) chases with 30 kilometres remaining.
Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia - Highroad) displayed true sprinter characteristics on the tough stage, dropping a bunch of time.
Great Britain's Charles Wegelius (Silence-Lotto) was in the early break but finished in 123rd spot.
Française Des Jeux lead the break with 30 kilometres remaining.
Frantisek Rabon (Team Columbia - Highroad) was comfortable in the leader's jersey at first, but when the pressure rose he dropped 22 minutes.
Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) was too fresh for his rival on the sprint to the finish.
Estonia's Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne) finished second on the stage and moved into third overall.
Russia's Vladimir Karpets (Team Katusha) was third to finish, seven seconds behind the leaders.
Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel - Euskadi) finished in fifth place 45 seconds back.
Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) finished 1:20 minutes down.
Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) puts on the race leader's jersey.

Stage 3 - May 1: Contre-la-montre par équipe - Yverdon-les-Bains (TTT), 14.8km

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Images by Edward A Madden/www.dotcycling.com

Team Saxo Bank pushed hard but could only manage the third quickest time.
Swiss rider Gregory Rast (Astana) couldn't keep up with his team and lost the race lead as a result.
Claudio Corioni leads the Liquigas squad up a rise during the team time trial.
Roman Kreuziger takes over at the front of the Liquigas train.
Philippe Gilbert and Cadel Evans threw everything they had at it, but Silence-Lotto could only manage fifth.
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte's Caisse d'Epargne men knuckled down but couldn't beat Columbia-Highroad.
Tony Martin starts sprinting ahead of Marco Pinotti as Columbia-Highroad reaches the finish line.
Marco Pinotti and Mark Cavendish congratulate one another after Columbia-Highroad won the team time trial.
Russian Denis Menchov pulls the Rabobank train.
Silence-Lotto had the hammer down but its rivals proved too good.
Astana set out with the race leader but wouldn't arrive at the finish line in the same position.
AG2R - La mondiale was one minute off the pace set by Columbia-Highroad.
Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara rides behind his Team Saxo Bank team-mate.
Cervélo TestTeam were solid as they matched the time of Katusha and Silence-Lotto.
My way or the highroad way: Columbia-Highroad were the quickest squad over the 161.5 km route.

Stage 2 - April 30: Etape en boucle - La Chaux-de-Fonds, 161.5km

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Images by Sirotti/www.sirotti.it

Oscar Freire (Rabobank) took the sprint after a hectic and aggressive finale on stage two.
Oscar Freire (Rabobank) collects the spoils of stage winner.
Florent Brard (Cofidis) was away with Matthieu Sprick (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) early in the stage.

Stage 1 - April 29: Montreux – Fribourg, 176.2km

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Ricardo Serrano Gonzalez (Fuji - Servetto) leads the race-winning break with Lars Bak (Team Saxo Bank) and Gregory Rast (Astana).
Frantisek Rabon (Team Columbia - Highroad) was unable to defend his leader's jersey.
Ricardo Serrano Gonzalez (Fuji - Servetto) wins stage one ahead of his breakaway companions Lars Ytting Bak (Team Saxo Bank) and Gregory Rast (Astana).
Ricardo Serrano Gonzalez (Fuji - Servetto) on the podium for winning stage one.
Swiss rider Gregory Rast (Astana) is the new overall leader.

Prologue - April 28: Lausanne (ITT), 3.1km

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Frantisek Rabon (Team Columbia - Highroad) powers to victory in the 3.1km prologue.
Frantisek Rabon (Team Columbia - Highroad) won the Tour de Romandie prologue.
Frantisek Rabon (Team Columbia - Highroad) leads the general classification at the Tour de Romandie.

Images by Edward A Madden/www.dotcycling.com

Local boy Gregory Rast may have been a little disappointed with 27th.
Astana's Haimar Zubeldia has a good record in Switzerland but that didn't continue today.
BMC's Jeff Louder is an American on a little Swiss adventure.
Jurgen Van Goolen (Saxo Bank) may be called upon to do some big turns at the front this week, so saved his matches for another day.
Swiss rider Marcel Wyss (Cervélo) was part of the top 30 riders.
Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) could be forgiven for thinking about the second stage.
Another local lad, Markus Zberg, was flying the BMC flag on home turf.
Martin Elmiger isn't known so much for his time trial ability but finished in 22nd.
Morris Possoni was looking calm on his way to taking 112th place.
Another local rider, Oliver Zaugg (Liquigas) gets some strange face contortions happening.
Silence-Lotto's Staf Scheirlinckx with the time-honoured, tongue-out position.
Katusha's big Russian, Vladimir Karpets made it home in 24th.
Alexandre Moos was the best BMC rider with his 20th place.
Saxo Bank rider Chris Anker Sörensen finished well down the standings.
Irish phenom Dan Martin rode with everything but it was teammate Tyler Farrar who took fourth.
David Moncoutié (Cofidis) ploughs along to 86th place.
Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara was tipped to go fastest but managed 11th, five seconds back.
Italian Filippo Pozzato put in a solid performance for 34th.
Czech national TT champ Frantisek Rabon set the best time on the 3.1km course.
Columbia-Highroad's Frantisek Rabon en route to winning the prologue.
Frantisek Rabon on the podium as winner of the Tour de Romandie prologue.