Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Tony Martin was less than a second off from a victory in the final stage 18.5km ITT at Tour de Romandie on Sunday.

Chris Froome (Sky ProCycling) bested the time of the three-time UCI World TT Champion after going faster at the intermediate point by a second. Jesse Sergent (Trek Factory Racing) was 3rd, 8" back. OPQS rider Rigoberto Uran also had a great performance, taking 4th (+15").

Tony was in the hot seat for quite some time with his time of 24'51" — a 44.849km/h average speed.

“I did a mistake on the downhill in a right corner,” Martin said. “I had to unclip from my pedal to prevent a crash. At that point I really lost a few seconds, and in a time trial with such great competition that can be the difference, even if my performance overall was good.

"I did the recon, and I knew that it was a tricky corner. But there is always a difference between race and recon in cycling.

"In any case I did a good first part of the race. I am happy about the climb of the parcours. My pace was good even if it wasn’t so easy to find the rhythm on the climb.

"The mistake cost me, but that’s bike racing. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Chris Froome did a great, great race and congratulations to him for this victory that he earned.”

“It hurts to lose a race by less than a second,” Sport Director Davide Bramati said. “But in modern cycling it happens more and more. We have already seen it during the TTT at the Tour de France and Worlds last year. It says a lot about the level of cycling at this moment. The competition is so close, there is no room for any error.

"But Tony did very well and we came out from this Tour de Romandie with a victory of Michal Kwiatkowski and a few good performances, such as today with Tony and Rigoberto Uran, and Jan Bakelants yesterday in the breakaway.

"Rigo was 4th today and it means he recovered really well from the mountain stages and was there with the top riders. It was a consistent performance for him going into the Giro d’Italia.”