Wednesday 27 April 2016 18:08, UK
Geraint Thomas moved up to third overall at the Tour de Romandie as Marcel Kittel sprinted to victory on stage one and Ion Izagirre retained the race lead.
Kittel was given a perfect lead-out by his Etixx - Quick-Step team and capitalised by beating Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) into second place and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) into third in Moudon.
Thomas followed safely in the peloton in 22nd and moved up one place overall after Team Sky team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski, who had been third, became distanced on the day's final climb and lost time.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) also finished in the peloton and is now 48th, 26 seconds down on Izagirre (Movistar).
The stage had to be shortened due to snow, which resulted in an early categorised climb being missed.
Kittel said: "It's special because it's not a race that is a good one for me as a sprinter. I came here to work on my condition but also try on the difficult days, like today.
"It was in my favour also that the first climb at the beginning was not in the race. In the end it was a very nice victory."
The six-day race continues on Thursday with a 173.9km second stage starting in Moudon and ending with a summit finish in Morgins.
Stage one result
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx - Quick-Step, 2:27:46
2 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, same time
3 Michael Albasini (Sui) Orica-GreenEdge, st
General classification
1 Ion Izagirre (Esp) Movistar, 2:33:19
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +6sec
3 Geraint Thomas (GB) Team Sky, +7
Selected other
48 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +2
