For the second year in a row, Simon Spilak was beaten into second at the Tour de Romandie by Chris Froome when he lost the leader's jersey in the final time tria. However, the Slovenian was gracious in defeat and admitted that the strongest rider had won the race.

Today  the 68th Tour de Romandie ended with the final decisive individual time trial for 18,5 km in Neuchâtel. Team Katusha’s rider Simon Špilak took the second place in the final general classification.

"It was a hard time trial with a really tough climb, but I did everything possible and gave all I had to obtain the highest result possible so I am pleased with my place on the podium. The strongest won today," he said.

Dressed all in yellow and heading out last from the start house as the race leader, Spilak rode a strong race but lost his one-second advantage to Christopher Froome and settled for second place on the general classification. After more than 16 hours of racing, Froome pulled out 28 seconds to Špilak and 1:32 to Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), marking his second win in a row at the Tour de Romandie.

"It was a great week and I am happy I took the victory in the queen stage, have worn the yellow jersey for several days and made the final podium. In addition, I was able to get 86 points for Team Katusha in the WorldTour. That's great."

"I think Simon did a very good time trial today," said Team Director Dmitry Konyshev. "Froome was the race favorite and it was hard to beat him today in ITT. But we did everything we could.

"Simon was fighting until the last meters so we can be satisfied with the result, with the podium and how the team did this week. We have a really strong team and proved it once again. I am proud for Katusha. We have a new solid result, but there is more still to come."

The final stage at the 68th Tour de Romandie brought a challenging individual time trial in Neuchâtel. At 18.5km, the course featured a short but steep climb midway through an otherwise basically flat course.

Current world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) set an early best time at 24:51 but current Tour de France champion Froome pulled out a big win by one- econd, taking the stage with a time of 24:50, and earning the final yellow jersey. Froome challenged Martin’s time at the halfway check point and held his advantage all the way to the end. Third place on the stage went to Jesse Sergent of Trek Factory at 8 seconds.

Špilak’s effort gave him seventh place on the stage and showed strong determination as he fought to retain his podium position and did so by more than a minute to Costa.

The first Grand Tour of the season is next on the racing calendar for Katusha with the beautiful Giro d’Italia beginning in Ireland on Friday. Joaquim Rodriguez will lead the team.