Celebrated track racer Geraint Thomas knows a thing or two about being aero.
                                       Photo: Bettini

 Britain's 2008 Olympic team pursuit track cycling champion Geraint Thomas won the Tour of Romandie prologue here on Tuesday while last year's winner Australia's Tour de France champion Cadel Evans finished 20 seconds off the pace.

   Thomas, who earlier this month collected a third track cycling world title in the team pursuit, was favored by more clement weather conditions than Evans encountered on the 3.34km course as he came in a time of 3min 29.43sec. The 25-year-old Sky rider - whose most notable road race win was in the Tour of Bavaria last year - edged out Italy's Giacomo Nizzolo and fellow Briton Mark Cavendish for first place.

   While Evans failed to cope with the driving rain another of his major rivals for the race title, Britain's Bradley Wiggins, shaped up better finishing 11th just nine seconds off Thomas's winning time. Wednesday's first stage is a 184.5km ride from Morges to La Chaux-de-Fonds which takes in several climbs, notably col des Bugnenets and col de la Tourne.
 
RESULTS: Tour de Romandie Prologue, a 3.3km ride around Lausanne
   1. Geraint Thomas (GBR/SKY)                           3min 29sec
   2. Giacomo Nizzolo (ITA/RSH)                         at    0:05.
   3. Mark Cavendish (IDM/SKY)                                0:06.
   4. Michael Rogers (AUS/SKY)                                0:06.
   5. Kristof Vandewalle (BEL/OPQ)                            0:06.
   6. Julien Vermote (BEL/OPQ)                                0:08.
   7. Bauke Mollema (NED/RAB)                                 0:08.
   8. Stef Clement (NED/RAB)                                  0:08.
   9. Manuele Boro (ITA/SAX)                                  0:09.
   10. Alex Rasmussen (DEN/GRM)                                0:09.
   11. Bradley Wiggins (GBR/SKY)                               0:09.
   12. Michael Matthews (AUS/RAB)                              0:10.
   13. Andrew Talansky (USA/GRM)                               0:10.
   14. Martin Velits (SVK/OPQ)                                 0:10.
   15. Wilco Kelderman (NED/RAB)                               0:10.
   16. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL/OPQ)                            0:10.
   17. Ramunas Navardauskas (LTU/GRM)                          0:11.
   18. Maarten Wijnants (BEL/RAB)                              0:11.
   19. Luke Durbridge (AUS/GEC)                                0:11.
   20. Gustav Larsson (SWE/VAC)                                0:11.