Etixx - Quick-Step finished 4th in the 19.2km opening TTT of Tour de Romandie on Tuesday, finishing with a time of 21'33 (53.457 km/h), which was 14" down on winner Team Sky (21'19"). Sky bested the time of Orica-GreenEDGE as the last team on the road by less than a second. 

Katusha finished 3rd (+05").

The parcours of the TTT from Vallée du Joux to Juraparc was mostly flat and not technical until the 2.2km to go point, when the riders had to climb Col du Mont d'Orzeires, which averages 2.5 percent. There was then a descent for the last 750 meters.

Etixx - Quick-Step looks next to Stage 2 on Wednesday. The stage is 168.1km in distance and features three Category 2 climbs, as well as a Category 3 climb. The final categorized climb of the day, Col de Vue des Alpes (8km, 6.7% average gradient, max ramp 9%), ends at 17.2km to go in the race. This race could end up with some fireworks in the finale with all the climbing taking some energy from the legs of the peloton.

"Unfortunately we only got fourth place in the team time trial at the Tour de Romandie. Our team has been a little weakened. We have had to improvise to put a team together, because of the many people missing due to illness. Some of our riders came to Switzerland directly from Lüttich-Bastogne-Lüttich without any break at all. And especially in time trials you notice when the freshness isn’t there," Martin wrote on his personal website. 

"We lost 14 seconds in our fight for the GC for Uran. Now I will concentrate on staying at his side, but also seeing how I do on the climbs. There is a closing time trial. And if I haven’t lost too much by then, it will maybe be something for me. If that would work out, it would make our team harder to figure out."