After a two-month break from competition, Germany's road cycling champion Maximilian Schachmann has returned with a strong performance. The 28-year-old Berliner from Team Bora-hansgrohe finished fifth in the prologue of the 75th Tour de Romandie in western Switzerland.
In the 5.12 kilometre individual time trial through Lausanne, Schachmann was 13 seconds slower than the British stage winner Ethan Hayter. His Welsh Ineos team-mate and defending champion Geraint Thomas finished fourth, ten seconds behind. Following a coronavirus illness at the end of January and a serious infection in March, Schachmann only competed in Paris-Nice at the beginning of March this year. However, the two-time overall winner had to withdraw from the French long-distance race after the third stage.
With neo-pro Georg Steinhauser (20) in eighth place, another German finished in the top ten in Lausanne. The first stage of the six-day WorldTour tour leads over 178 kilometres from La Grande Beroche to Romont on Wednesday. The race, which Andreas Klöden was the only German to win to date in 2008, finishes in Villars on 1 May.
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