cycling
Denz in fourth place at the start of the Tour de Romandie
Nico Denz drove a strong prologue at the Tour de Romandie. photo
© Valentin Flauraud/KEYSTONE/dpa
The German professional cyclist Nico Denz took fourth place in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie with a strong time trial.
The German professional cyclist Nico Denz took fourth place in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie with a strong time trial.
The man from Freiburg was stopped on the 6.82-kilometer course in Port-Valais with a time of 7:29 minutes. He was four seconds behind Czech winner Josef Cerny. The Norwegian time trial world champion Tobias Foss dropped one second to second place.
“I knew I was in very good shape and today I just wanted to see what that was good for. I’m a bit surprised myself to be honest. But it went really well and I had good legs. It’s almost a shame then , when you sit in the hot seat for so long and then you are relieved. But the others were clearly faster,” said Denz.
Denz just missed his second victory on the World Tour. Last year, the 29-year-old from the Bora-hansgrohe team won a stage of the Tour de Suisse. The hilly tour of Romandie continues on Wednesday with the first stage over 170.9 kilometers from Crissier to Vallée de Joux.