Chris Froome (Sky) did it all perfectly in the final 18.5km time trial of the Tour de Romandie to not only take the leader's jersey off the shoulders of Simon Spilak (Katusha) but also take the stage victory. The Brit beat world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) by less than a second and put 29 seconds into Spilak on the hilly course while Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) did a great ride to defend his spot on the overall podium.

One year ago Chris Froome defended his overall lead over Simon Spilak in the final time trial of the Tour de Romandie. Today he found himself in the opposite situation when he headed in the final race against the clock with time to make up on the Slovenian who had beaten him in the queen stage and enjoyed a narrow 1-second victory.

Over the 18.5km hilly course around Neuchatel, however, the Brit proved that he is the strongest rider in the race. Already at the intermediate check, he had put 25 seconds into his rival and when he crossed the line, he had added another 4 seconds to his lead over the Slovenian, giving him a comfortable overall victory.

The overall victory wasn't enough for Froome though as he had also set his sights on the stage victory. At the intermediate time on the top of the day's only climb, he was less than a second ahead of world champion Tony Martin who had the fastest time both there and at the finish.

The second half was expected to suit Martin better than Froome but surprisingly, the German had lost time to a lot of riders over the second half of the course. Froome and Martin were exactly equally fast in that high-speed section and so Froome crossed the line to take a very narrow vicory, beating the world champion by less than a second.

Jesse Sergent (Trek) had produced a fantastic ride to finish just 7 seconds off the time set by Martin and the Kiwi held on to take an impressive 3rd, capping a very solid performance from him all week. Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) did surprisingly well by taking 4th while Ion Izagirre (Movistar) secured 8th overall by taking 5th on the day.

The battle for the final spot on the podium was a really exciting one as Rui Costa, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Mathias Frank (IAM), Benat Intxausti (Movistar) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) had started the stage within seconds of each other. At the top of the climb, Intxausti was the fastest ahead of Frank, Costa and Intxausti while Fuglsang had lost a lot of time.

At the finish, however, the tables had turned though as the world champion had produced a storming ride in the second half to finish 6th on the stage and defend his spot on the podium. Hence, the top 3 was the exact same as it was 12 months ago while Frank did a really good time trial to move into fourth on GC ahead of Nibali, Intxausti and Fuglsang.

Johann Tschopp took an important result for IAM by winning the mountains jersey while Martin Kohler (BMC) won the sprints classification. Jesus Herrada (Movistar) narrowly held off a very strong Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) to take the white jersey for best young rider while Movistar put three riders in the top 10 and so was a clear winner of the teams classification.

The WorldTour resumes on Friday when the first grand tour, the Giro d'Italia, kicks off in Belfast.

A hilly course

As is often the case, the Tour de Romandie ended with a time trial and this year's course for the race against the clock was a very mixed affair. Starting and finishing in Neuchatel, the stage headed along flat roads to a 2km climb with an average gradient of more than 8%. After that, it was a fast descent and back along the same flat road to the finish.

The first rider down the ramp was Chris Sutton (Sky) who started his ride at 11.53 local time. However, he was passed by his teammate Nathan Earle who was the first to cross the line and his time of 26.48 was the early mark of the day.

Orica-GreenEDGE dominate the early part of the stage

Earle didn't enjoy much time in the hot seat though as his compatriot Michael Hepburn took over the lead by going 21 seconds faster but when he crossed the line, he had already been beaten at the intermediate check by Orica-GreenEDGE teammate Svein Tuft. The Canadian kept the speed and crossed the line in a time that was 11 seconds faster than Hepburn's.

Tuft enjoyed a little longer time as provisional leader but was finally knocked out of the first position when Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) was 5 seconds faster. At that point, however, Jesse Sergent (Trek) had crusked the opposition at the intermediate check, going 59 seconds faster, and at the finish, he was 1.19 ahead.

Best time for Martin

World champion Tony Martin (OPQS) was already on the course and at the intermediate check, he was 16 seconds faster than Sergent. However, he lost 9 seconds in the second half and at the finish, he was only 7 seconds ahead.

Reto Hollenstein (IAM) had a good ride to move into third while Jack Bobridge (Belkin) made it into fourth. They were both beaten by Anthony Roux (FDJ) though.

Good ride by Ludvigsson

The first to get within a minute of the top 2 riders was Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Shimano) who posted a time that was 35 seconds slower than Martin's. Moments later, Jeremy Roy (FDJ) moved into fourth, setting a time that was 50 seconds too slow.

Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp) was just one second slower than Ludvigsson to make it into fourth while Spanish champion Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) slotted into 6th. One of the day's favourites Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) could only manage 5th, 2 seconds behind Ludvigsson while the next rider to make it into the top 10 was Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEDGE) who slotted into 6th.

Fantastic ride by Uran

Sergei Chernetskii (Katusha) raised some eyebrows when he was third at the intermediate check but at the finish he had slipped back to 7th. Stef Clement (Belkin) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) were also both in the top 5 at the intermediate check but at the finish they could only manage 7th and 8th respectively.

The next rider to catch some unexpected attention was Rigoberto Uran (OPQS) who proved a massive improvement in the time trials by passing the intermediate check in third. He performed even better in the fast second half to take back time on Martin and crossed the line in a time that was good enough for the provisional podium.

Zoidl shows his promise

Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) crossed the line at the intermediate check in a time that was just fractions of a second faster than Uran's but he lost a bit in the second half and could only manage fourth at the finish. Meanwhile, both had been beaten by Izagirre who also lost a bit in the second half to  cross the line in 4th.

Thibaut Pinot produced an amazing performance when he finished in the 5th best time and suddenly seemed to be in contention for the white jersey. However, Herrada defended the tunic by making it into 6th.

The battle for the podium

Jakob Fuglsang had a disappointing ride to cross the line in 12th while Intxausti was only 3 seconds better in 10th. Frank did much better when he crossed the line in 7th, giving him hope that he would finish on the podium.

As Nibali could only manage 14th, Frank moved ahead of the Giro champion on GC but moments later Costa crossed the line in 6th to finish in 3rd for the third year in a row. However, most attention now was on Froome as he had been less than a second faster than Martin at the intermediate check.

Froome kept the speed all the way to the line to defend his narrow lead over Martin. As Spilak could only manage 7th, the Brit took it all as he also took a comfortable second overall victory in the Swiss race.