Italian Fabio Felline won the prologue of the Tour de Romandie to claim the overall lead after a 4.8km individual time trial on a slippery course on Tuesday.
The Trek-Segafredo rider clocked five minutes and 57 seconds to beat Britain's Alex Dowsett (Movistar) by two seconds and Australian Alexander Edmondson (Orica-Scott) by seven seconds.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche, riding for Team BMC Racing, finished 24th, 17 seconds down.
The favourites for the overall classification did not take any risks on the wet roads, with Britain's Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) ending up 18 seconds behind, a place below Roche.
Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished 29 seconds off the pace.
Wednesday's first stage is a 173.3-km mountainous trek from Aigle to Champery.
