Chris Froome finished safely in a reduced peloton to sit third overall after two stages at the Tour de Romandie.

The Brit crossed the line alongside team-mate Nicholas Roche in Saint-Imier after an eventful stage which saw Team Sky relinquish their early hold on the yellow jersey.

Geraint Thomas suffered some bad luck in the closing stages, puncturing at the most inopportune time ahead of the final climb. With the race on and attacks firing on the Col la Vue des Alpes, the Welshman was unable to return to an ever-dwindling front group on the second-category climb.

Froome, who himself suffered a puncture 11 kilometres earlier, was able to hang tough and now holds third on the GC, 10 seconds back on new race leader Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge).

The Swiss rider sprinted to victory ahead of Jarlinson Pantano (BMC Racing) and Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step), with the ensuing bonus seconds enough to elevate him into yellow.

After an opening day victory in the team time trial, Team Sky controlled much of the 168.1km test as they looked to protect the interests of both Froome and Thomas.

With Luke Rowe holding an overnight lead in the young rider classification and Ian Stannard and Elia Viviani wearing the mountain and points jerseys respectively – Team Sky had a multi-coloured presence at the head of the peloton.

Stannard and Danny Pate led the way early on as they set about controlling a two-man break of Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM Cycling).

Pete Kennaugh arrived to pace the penultimate climb of the Col des Pontins alongside Rowe, and the Manxman was called into action again late on after Thomas punctured.

With 22km to go the pair looked to make their way back to the peloton as Roche covered moves up ahead. The timing made it doubly difficult for Thomas, who in the end was forced to sit up and crossed the line over four minutes down.