Belkin lined up at the Tour de Romandie with three fast finishers that could all come into play depending on the toughness of the race. In today's hard stage, Jonathan Hivert got his chance but could only manage 8th and the team is hopeful that Moreno Hofland will survive the climbing in tomorrow's sligthly easier stage.

Jonathan Hivert finished eighth in the Tour de Romandie stage one today. The Frenchman was the best Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM rider of the day in Sion, Switzerland. 

The organiser re-routed around the Simplonpass due to bad weather, meaning the riders covered only 90 kilometres instead of the original 203. 

“But because of that we had a long transfer by car,” said Hivert. “I didn’t like the car ride on the twisting and turning mountain roads. It’s not very good for the body. We also started very late and that made it a different day. 

“Twenty kilometres from the finish, we had to tackle a second category climb. Normally I sprint well after a small hill, but today I came up bit too short. In itself, eighth is fine, but of course, I’d rather win.” 

Erik Dekker said that re-routing of the stage was a good call.

“It was almost freezing on the top of the Simplonpass and around noon, it started to snow. All the things that came with the change were annoying, but it was the best decision.” 

Dekker was happy with the result and what happened behind the sprint for the win. Martijn Keizer finished 24th and moved up to the eighth place in the overall.

“Despite the late climb, he managed to finish in the first group and that’s just a very nice effort. You can tell that he’s been on an altitude training camp.” 

Dekker expects a finish similar to today’s on Thursday.

“Of course, we’ll ride the normal distance tomorrow but again, I don’t think that we’re going to see a bunch sprint. The second half of the stage is pretty hard.

"In my eyes, Marcel Kittel is Moreno Hofland’s biggest contender when it comes to a sprint, and there’s a good chance that Kittel will get dropped tomorrow. If so, Moreno could sprint for the win. The only thing he needs to do is survive. A great challenge, if you ask me!”