Chris Froome successfully defended his Tour de Romandie title by winning the race’s final individual time trial and claiming overall victory by 28 seconds.
Froome beat World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin to the stage victory by less than a second as Team Sky claimed their third successive win in the prestigious Swiss race following Froome’s 2013 triumph and Sir Bradley Wiggins' in 2012.
Froome said: “It was a really good test for me and I am just really happy to have got the result and be back in a yellow jersey again. It’s a really good feeling.”
The 2013 Tour de France winner was relived to claim the race victory after his early season had been blighted by injuries and illness. The Kenyan-born athlete won the Tour of Oman in February but had to withdraw from Tirreno-Adriatico and Liege-Bastogne-Liege and struggled to sixth in the Volta a Catalunya
Froome said: “This has been a really hard period for me recently. I have had a chest infection, I have had problems with my back this season, so it hasn’t been very easy.
"I have worked really hard to get back to this kind of condition. I just hope that I can continue to build towards the Tour de France."
The 28-year-old said this year’s Tour de Romandie was harder than the previous edition.
He said: “I didn’t feel at all comfortable in the race. It was flat out. It wasn’t easy. This year was a bit of a different race. We didn’t have any hilltop finishes, but I am really happy to have been able to defend the title."
