Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) made up for his disappointment in yesterday's sprint with a win in today's 3rd stage of the Tour de Romandie. He beat Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) and Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) at the end of a fast and wet day to take his second win in the race.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step made a wise decision when they used the uncertainty over Lotto-Belisol's ProTeam license to pick up their fast Gianni Meersman. After two victories in the Volta a Catalunya in March he took his fourth WorldTour win in the season as he won the third stage of the Tour de Romandie.

Yesterday he had been disappointed to only end up 3rd in the sprint but today he took his revenge as his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team delivered their sprinter perfectly to the line at the end of a hard and wet day in rolling terrain. A dangerous move by Adriano Malori (Lampre) seemed to threaten the expected sprint but Meersman's teammates Peter Velits and Kristof Vandewalle took some huge turns to bring back the lone Italian.

Inside the final kilometer Tony Martin gave his teammate the perfect lead-out but it was Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge) who tried to surprise his rivals by opening up a long sprint. However, Meersman reacted immediately and passed the Swiss easily to once again win a sprint at the end of a hard stage.

With the bonus seconds Meersman moves into 3rd place overall 9 seconds behind leader Chris Froome whose Sky team once again did a huge job to defend the yellow jersey. Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) remains in 2nd position.

After three sprint finishes the GC battle heats up tomorrow when the riders have to tackle the race's queen stage with no less than 4 category 1 climbs. This will be the big opportunity for the climbers to take some time out of the time triallists ahead of Sunday's final race against the clock.

Starting at 16.00 you can follow the stage live on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

An extremely fast start

The 181km stage was held in the rolling terrain around the city of Payerne and after a number of sunny days it was true Romandie weather with plenty of rain. As it was the case yesterday, the start was extremely fast and for a long time no one was able to get clear. A dangerous attack by Morgan Lamoisson (Europcar) and 7th placed Stef Clement (Blanco) was one of the short-lived moves in the early part of the stage.

After 30km the day's early move was finally created as Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Steven Kruijswijk (Blanco), Matthias Brändle (IAM), Kevin Reza (Europcar) and Julien Berard (Ag2r) got clear. After a hard chase Peio Bilbao (Euskaltel) joined the group and the 6 riders were allowed to build up a gap which reached its maximum at 4.03.

Burghardt takes KOM lead

Burghardt was also in yesterday's break and he used the opportunity to win the first two KOM sprints of the day to take over the lead in the mountains competition from Garikoitz Bravo (Euskaltel). Meanwhile, Brändle won the day's first intermediate sprint to solidify his lead in the sprint classification.

Kruijswijk is a dangerous GC rider and Sky could not allow the gap to get too big. As they were assisted by Astana who wanted a hard race for their sprinter Gavazzi, the gap started to come down quickly and at the bottom of the day's penultimate climb with 47km to go, it was all back together.

An aggressive race

Attacks went off in large numbers on the climb with Pierrick Fedrigo (FDJ) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) among the aggressors. However, Sky managed to keep everything under control and at the top it was Bravo who took the points to remain close to Burghardt in the mountains classification.

Over the top a dangerous 9-rider move went clear as Richie Porte (Sky), Fedrigo, Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Jurgen Van De Walle (Lotto-Belisol), Francis De Greef (Lotto-Belisol), Enrico Gasparotto (Astana),  Evgeny Petrov (Saxo-Tinkoff), Malori and Clement got a gap. With Porte in the group Sky stopped their chase work but Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Radioshack sensed the danger and closed it down.

Rohregger in a solo move

Instead it was Thomas Rohregger (Radioshack) who soloed off the front in the very aggressive race and the Austrian rider built up a 10 second gap which he was able to maintain for a number of kilometres. In the peloton Vladimir Karpets and Pablo Lastras (Movistar) set the pace and after 10km Rohregger was back in the main group.

At the bottom of the day's last categorized climb, Gasparotto and Simone Stortoni (Lampre) went clear. Meanwhile, David Lopez (Sky) took over from Movistar and kept the break under firm control while he also chased down a countermove by Dominik Nerz (BMC) and Kruijswijk.

Majka and Kelderman counter

With 12km to go Stortoni and Gasparotto were caught and it was all back together as they hit a short uncategorized ascent. At the bottom Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Wilco Kelderman (Blanco) went clear and they build up a gap of around 10 seconds.

In the peloton Porte was now Froome's only domestique and the Australian set a hard pace. Over the top of the climb he had to dig deep to close down a dangerous move from Martin, Malori, Moser and an Argos rider.

With 7km to go Majka and Kelderman were caught as Lopez was now back at the front. There was, however, no time to rest as Malori countered and quickly built up a big gap. Sensing the danger Omega Pharma-Quick Step had to step on the gas and a hard chase effort from the team laid the groundwork for another win by their Belgian sprinter Meersman.

Top 10:

1. Gianni Meersman

2. Francesco Gavazzi

3. Michael Albasini

4. Luka Mezgec

5. Juan Jose Lobato

6. Danilo Wyss

7. Rinaldo Nocentini

8. Roberto Ferrrari

9. Reinhardt Van Rensburg

10. Xavier Florencio

General classification:

1 Christopher Froome - Sky Procycling 09.34.13
2 Andrew Talansky - Garmin-Sharp 0.06

3 Gianni Meersman 0.09
4 Robert Kiserlovski - RadioShack Leopard 0.13
5 Richie Porte - Sky Procycling 0.15
6 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa - Movistar Team 0.16
7 Thibaut Pinot - FDJ 0.17
8 Stef Clement - Blanco Pro Cycling Team
9 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte - Movistar Team
10 Thomas Danielson - Garmin-Sharp