Tejay van Garderen, the final BMC Racing Team rider to start at the opening prologue at the Tour de Suisse on Saturday – and eighth-from-last of 167 riders – finished 73rd, 45 seconds back as he was one of many riders who were caught by surprise as the wind suddenly kicked up dramatically and thus played a crucial part in deciding the outcome the stage.

"I was feeling good and I was motivated for today," van Garderen said. "I was thinking it would be a good chance for a result. But with the weather conditions, sometimes that's how it is in the prologue. Conditions can change. It's not like in a normal time trial where the GC guys mostly start together. In a prologue, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't," van Garderen said on the BMC website.

BMC Racing Team Directeur Sportif John Lelangue said there will be plenty of time for van Garderen to make up time lost. "There is still a long way to go," he said. "Nobody was expecting this kind of forecast of the conditions – conditions that totally changed from the beginning of the race to the end. Most important (for van Garderen) was to stay in contact with the other contenders and even take some time from them while having some good sensations."