Geraint Thomas marked it up as a good day despite slipping from second to third overall on stage two of the Tour de Romandie.
Thomas remains nine seconds behind Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Rohan Dennis after Sonny Colbrelli took the stage win for Bahrain-Victorious in Saint-Imier, but Patrick Bevin moved up to second place, one second ahead of Thomas, by virtue of bonus seconds as he finished second on the day.
Even so, Thomas was happy after the Grenadiers were able to contain attacks by the likes of Sepp Kuss and Michael Woods late on the 166km run from La Neuveville, with Dennis showing he was willing to sacrifice himself in service of Thomas as he took on responsibility for shutting down their rivals.
"Obviously we'd have preferred for Rohan not to have to do anything today but he stepped up when he had to, that’s for sure," Thomas said.
"He got in the groove and didn’t really want to stop! It was a really good day. A lot could have gone wrong out there and the boys did a great job in controlling it all.
"We’ve been lucky with the weather too – the talk before the race was there would be rain every day here, but so far so good. Someone is on our side."
Ireland Eddie Dunbar came home in 68th place today and sits in 61st in general classification.
The race continues on Friday with a hilly 169km stage which starts and finishes in Estavayer.
