Chris Froome laid down an early marker at the Tour de Romandie as he claimed a stunning prologue victory.

The Team Sky rider was the last man down the ramp and tore into the 7.45 km climbing test, catching and passing his minute-man on the way to a superb time of 13 minutes and 15 seconds.

That effort was six seconds quicker than anyone else and moved Froome into the early race lead, capturing the yellow jersey won by teammate Sir Bradley Wiggins last season.

Richie Porte ended the tough opening test in fourth, his time of 13:30 standing firm at the top of the charts for a long time as the Tasmanian once again demonstrated his form.

Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) dethroned Porte as he set a time nine seconds quicker than anyone else as pacing in the final steep 500 metre section emerged as a key to success in Bruson.

Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard) also elevated himself onto the podium before Froome, undeterred by the fast times, blew the competition away to register his sixth success of the year. The result also marked a second successive prologue victory in the race after Geraint Thomas went fastest in Lausanne 12 months earlier.

“I haven’t raced now in a stage race for a month since Criterium International,” said Froome afterwards. “I wasn’t sure how my condition would be coming into this race. Winning the prologue today is definitely a good sign and I’d like to try and defend the jersey this week the best I can. I know it’s going to be a very hard week of racing.”

“We have a really good team here. Richie who came fourth today is also sitting in a very good position. That could be really important for us over the next few days as it means we have some other cards to play with the rest of the riders here to support us. It should be a good week of racing. We’re going to try and keep [the jersey]. I don’t have a really big advantage on the other GC contenders here. I think the big stages will be this coming weekend. On Saturday we have a really hard mountain stage followed by a time trial on Sunday. So we have to do as much as we can there and hope that nothing bad turns against us in the race.”

Stage result (and general classification):

1. Chris Froome (Team Sky) 13:15
2. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) 6”
3. Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard) 13”
4. Richie Porte (Team Sky) 15”
5. Rui Costa (Movistar) 16”