Cycling: Albasini wins Romandie stage, Felline keeps lead

CHAMPERY: Switzerland's Michael Albasini won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday as prologue winner Fabio Felline of Italy maintained his overall lead.

Twice former winner and favourite Chris Froome finished fifth on the stage and climbed 39 places, but remains 29 seconds off the pace after finishing 78th in Tuesday's opening 4.8km prologue.

On a sopping wet day, Albasini won a sprint finish at the end of the 173.3km mountainous stage from Aigle to Champery in Switzerland, with Italian Diego Ulissi second and Jesus Herrada of Spain third.

It was 36-year-old Albasini's seventh stage win at the tour.

Felline finished safely in the leading bunch in 12th in the same time as the winner. German Maximilian Schachmann jumped two places to second overall at 8sec with Herrada now third on the same time.