SAIGNELEGIER (Switzerland), May 1: Maxim Iglinskiy gave his Astana team a much-needed lift with victory in the first stage of the Tour of Romandie on Wednesday.

The Kazakh rider took plenty of risks in the winding finale of a hilly and rainy stage to outsprint two local riders, Michael Albasini of Liquigas and Gerolsteiner’s Markus Zberg.

All three finished in the same time of four hours, 47 minutes, 28 seconds for the 184.2 km run in the Swiss mountains, with Albasini taking the overall lead.

It was a stage victory to savour for Astana as the Kazakh team have been excluded by Tour de France and Giro d’Italia organisers from all of their races because of the team’s past doping record.

There was no shortage of motivation on Wednesday as the Astana riders, including leader Andreas Kloeden, rode at the front in the three climbs of the day.

In the last, the first category climb to Saulcy, a group of 40 riders, including most of the favourites, caught the three men who had broken away after 10 km — Italian Morris Possoni, Spaniard Patxi Vila and Dane Matti Breschel.

The trio had been in the lead for 150 km when they were reined in.

After numerous attempts in the finale, a mass sprint eventually proved inevitable and last year’s winner Thomas Dekker showed he was in great form by launching it.

However, Iglinskiy was the boldest of the bunch, attacking shortly before a steep turn which nearly sent some of his rivals to the floor.

Third in the prologue, Albasini will take a one-second lead over Iglinsky into the 172.1 km second stage to Fribourg, where Astana will be expected to launch a fresh assault.—Reuters