Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) powered to the first WorldTour victory of his career in the 3.4km opening prologue at the Tour de Romandie, narrowly pipping Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to the win by less than a second with a time of 4:33 in Saint-Imier.
The near-four-minute effort fit perfectly into Oliveira's wheelhouse, as one of the top individual pursuit riders in track cycling. He had survived challenges from Olympic and world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), and looked set for victory, until he was left with his head in his hands on the hot seat after Watson bettered his time.
