Payerne - Italian sprinter Elia Viviani missed the cut for Sky's Giro d'Italia line-up on Friday but bounced back by winning stage three of the Tour of Romandie in Switzerland.
As the poor weather of recent days cleared Viviani was helped out in his win in the 187km run around Payerne by Sky leader and three time Tour de France winner Chris Froome, who led out the sprint team and is favourite to emerge as overall winner come Sunday.
After he snatched the overall lead in the prologue on Tuesday another Italian, Fabio Felline, maintained that lead again Friday ahead of Germany's Maximilian Schachmann and Spain's Jesus Herrada.
Saturday's race features four challenging mountain climbs and a summit finish but the final stage is an all-decisive go-for-bust individual time trial around Lausanne and Lake Geneva.
Results from Friday's 187km third stage of the Tour de Romandie in Payerne:
1. Elia Viviani (ITA, Sky) 4hr 27min 42sec, 2. Sonny Colbrelli (ITA, Barhrain) same time, 3. Michael Schwarzmann (GER, Bora) s.t., 4. Alexander Edmondson (AUS, Orica) s.t., 5. Samuel Dumoulin (FRA, AG2R) s.t., 6. Youcel Reguigui (ALG, Dimension) s.t., 7. Max Richeze (ARG, Quick-Step) s.t., 8. Moreno Hofland (NED, Lotto-Soudal) s.t., 9. Viacheslav Kuznetsov (RUS, Katusha) s.t., 10. Juan Jose Lobato (ESP, Lotto-NL) s.t.
Overall standings:
1. Fabio Felline (ITA, Trek), 12hr 40min 24sec, 2. Maximilian Schachmann (GER, Quick-Step) at 8sec, 3. Jesus Herrada (ESP, Movistar) s.t., 4. Primoz Roglic (SLO, Lotto-NL) 0:09, 5. Ion Izagirre (ESP, Bahrain) 0:12, 6. Bob Jungels (LUX, Quick-Step) s.t., 7. Jose Goncalves (POR, Katusha) 0:13, 8. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, Movistar) s.t., 9. Michael Albasini (SUI, Orica) 0:14, 10. Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP, Movistar) s.t.
Selected others:
36. Chris Froome (GBR, Sky) 0:29, 46. Richie Porte (AUS, BMC) 0:33, 49. Tejay Van Garderen (USA, BMC) 0:34