Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner) won the first stage of the Tour de Romandie on Wednesday.

The German outsprinted Spaniards Francisco Perez and Joaquin Rodriguez (Caisse d'Epargne) to win the 157.8km stage from Granges-Paccot to La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Italian Paolo Savoldelli (Astana) retained the leader's yellow jersey.

Fothen's win in the northern Swiss town took him to third place in the general standings behind the 32-year-old Savoldelli and Czech Roman Kreuziger.

Five riders broke away just 18km into the stage and their valiant effort only came to an end 125km later.

Veteran Frenchman Laurent Brochard (Bouygues Telecom) and the youngest rider in the race, 20-year-old Italian Eros Capecchi (Liquigas), drove the group to a 4min 30sec lead over the main peloton.

However, Savoldelli's Astana team reeled them in on the undulating final stretch through the Jura hills and the main peloton swallowed up the leading duo in the final half hour of the race.

Fothen and Perez narrowly held on to a late breakaway just 10km from the finish, but their initial 18-second gap melted as Savoldelli accelerated to defend his yellow jersey.

"Our team tactics were of course to control (the race). That's what we did," Savoldelli said. "I was very cold. We're still sizing ourselves up, but I'm really happy to keep the (yellow) jersey, that's for sure."

Last year's Tour de Romandie winner, Australian Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), made up for lost time in Tuesday's prologue with a fifth place in the northern Swiss city, remaining just seconds adrift of the leader.

Savoldelli holds onto the jersey

Photo: Graham Watson

Evans nonetheless said he was leaving the early running in the six stage tour to teammate Chris Horner of the United States and keeping his eye on the climbs of the final Alpine stages and time trial on Sunday.

"The first two or three days are just right for Chris. But after Thursday, the last two or three days are the best for me," Evans said.

Tour de Romandie
Stage 1
1. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, 157.8km in 4:08:58
2. Francisco Perez Sanchez (Sp), Caisse D’Epargne, same time
3. Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Sp), Caisse D’Epargne, s.t.
4. Mirco Lorenzetto (I), Team Milram, s.t.
5. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, s.t.
6. Leonardo Duque (Col), Cofidis, s.t.
7. Karsten Kroon (Ned), Team CSC, s.t.
8. Enrico Gasparotto (I), Liquigas, s.t.
9. Andreas Dietziker (Swi), Team LPR, s.t.
10. Theo Eltink (Ned), Rabobank, s.t.

Overall
1. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Astana, 4:13:33
2. Roman Kreuziger (Cze), Liquigas, at 0:05
3. Markus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner, at 0:06
4. Sandy Casar (F), Française des Jeux, at 0:07
5. Christopher Horner (USA), Predictor-Lotto, same time
6. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana, at 0:09
7. Francisco Perez Sanchez (Sp), Caisse D’Epargne, at 0:10
8. Hubert Schwab (Swi), Quick Step–Innergetic, at 0:11
9. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (B), Predictor-Lotto, s.t.
10. Beat Zberg Gerolsteiner (Swi),, at 0:12

Complete results