British climber Simon Yates has put in a strong final time trial at the Tour de Romandie today, lifting himself to sixth position overall at the end of the six-day race. The 22-year-old entered the last day of racing in seventh position, one minute and one second down on leader Ilnur Zakarin (Team Katusha). 

His effort in the 17.3km race against the clock was enough to give him 12th on the stage and lift him to sixth on general classification. Former time trial world champion Tony Martin (Etixx Quick – Step) won the stage whilst Zakarin finished third to secure the overall victory. Going into the final hit out, sport director Neil Stephens was conservative in his hopes for Yates but was more than pleased with the performance.

“Simon had a phenomenal ride,” Stephens said. “(Nairo) Quintana wasn’t one of the guys I thought he could pass, but he did, and certainly no one passed him, so a really really good ride. The time trials he has done lately have been hard and technical and Simon is technically really good so we have to be realistic in saying that those two time trials are good for him and he executed them very well.

“Simon’s attitude for the day, his preparation and his attitude and performance across the whole week has been excellent.”

Yates’ overall result caps off a successful week for ORICA-GreenEDGE after Michael Albasini added two stage wins to the three he won in 2014 and wore the yellow leader’s jersey for three days.

“Very much so,” Stephens said when asked if the team achieved the goals they brought into the race. “0.63 seconds from winning a team time trial against one of the strongest teams Sky can put together and two road stages from Michael Albasini.

"And a top ten at the Tour de Romandie when you look at some of the riders there, that’s fantastic.  I had thought maybe it was a little too hard for here so sixth is unbelievable.

"The work of the whole team was great from the riders on the road to the staff as well, they are all part of those results.”