Maikel Zijlaard takes powerful prologue victory at 2024 Tour de Romandie
Cycling
Maikel Zijlaard has become the first man to take the leaders jersey at the 2024 Tour de Romandie after a very impressive performance in the opening prologue.
The first rider to set a real marker time down was Tudor Pro Cycling Team's Maikel Zijlaard, the Swiss setting a time of 2:55 for the twisty and technical 2.2km course. Notably, Zijlaard had opted to use a road bike rather than a time-trial bike for his effort.
Elsewhere, most of the notable names such as Juan Ayuso (3:01), Lenny Martinez (3:01), Enric Mas (3:00), Aleksandr Vlasov (3:02) and Jan Tratnik (3:01) were all quite tightly packed together in the overall standings, given the short, sharp nature of the course.
Although very few seconds differentiated almost the entire race, Zijlaard still held a comparatively massive gap at the top. The first rider to even go close, was Julian Alaphilippe, clocking a time of 2:57.
Former Tour de Romandie prologue winner Ethan Hayter started his efforts brightly, but the INEOS Grenadiers man pushed it too hard on one corner and with so little room for mistake, was immediately ruled out of stage winning contention.
As rider after riding came towards the finish, Zijlaard's time began to look more and more impressive. Cameron Scott though, looked like he might finally unseat the Swiss before narrowly missing out by around a second. Last down the ramp was Brandon McNulty but the American time-trial champion couldn't pull off the win.
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
If you see double A you have 50% chance it’s Dutch, if you see ij you have 90% chance, if you see both, forget about maths or statistics, it’s 100% sure. Of course nowadays some people change nationalities like their underwear.
Some countries cause problems for others You are Dutch, not a Dutch You are Belgian not Belgium The Dutch are from the Netherlands, it is politically incorrect to say Holland but I do because when they criticise it I can push their hypocrisy in their face, after all, whenever their Football team does well, all you can hear in the stands is Holland, Holland, Holland, then don’t complain when others use it too. The reason Holland never died or went out of fashion is because the English version of Nederland is impossible to integrate into slogans or sentences. And it doesn’t help (especially for Americans) that Dutch and Deutsch sound very similar.
Lol, I seen that in tennis. Like Alexandre Shevchenko, swapped his nationality from Russia to Kazachstan. Varvara Gracheva did that too, she switch from Russia to France. Ironically, both are inconsistent, since their decision to switch nationality. Aemeric Laporte (an ex-Man City player) switch from France and Spain, and he's also in bad form since he switching his nationality too
Good for him, smart choice. Fabian will be happy. He is not Swiss though, the team is.
Did not see this one coming. Good for Zijlaard en his team. Great win!
I am, but became American years ago. Lived in a lot of countries (always temporarily), but the US is my final stop.
Probadly joining the discussion. Since DareDevil does not being rude or complaining on here
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- That made me smile Suipedali. Nice one!Cyclingsbestfan14-03-2025
- Even if Pogi has 5s on top of Poggio, he's getting caught on descent unfortunately. And it's extremely unlikely that he will have morevappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- If Pogi can drop him, then he will winabstractengineer14-03-2025
- In that sense, those two have less in common than the link you could make between demonstrators, right handers, Hinault and Merckx.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- "He apparently thought it was completely fine." Nothing broken and no concussion, that's as completely fine as it gets in cyclingvappaxbipmv14-03-2025
- Better safe than sorry. At least his injuries are a lot less severe than they were last year.
santiagobenites14-03-2025 - Well spotted :-)Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- One thing Jonas Vingegaard has in common with Hinault is that they are moaners, although I couldn't see Jonas giving a demonstrator a right hander!Suipedali14-03-2025
- They are surprisingly rare on the pro circuit, around our area, one in four races finishes of with a really steep 500m climb at the end.Mistermaumau14-03-2025
- Give him an uphill sprint, then he may win against pure sprinters.
KerisVroom14-03-2025