Luke Plapp might have been expected to make a dent in the overall Tour de Romandie contenders from Friday's third stage time trial, but he didn't wait for that. The Australian rider of Jayco Aroura seized the chance to jump into the breakaway on Thursday's stage 2 finish climb and built an advantage over his main overall class rivals the day before the race against the clock, a stage he had targeted before the race.

Plapp finished third in the 171km stage behind Tibau Nais (Lidl-Trek) and Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and third overall.

"Honestly, it was kind of an interesting day. There was a break, nobody knew which team was going to run, and there was a bit of a standoff. The last climb was a surprise to me, to be honest. I was surprised myself, to be honest.

Plapp may not have been planning an attack on stage 2, as the 23-year-old initially had Florian Lipowitz (Bora-Hansgrohe) in tow, but by the time he bridged to the rest of the breakaway, he was riding alone.

"Simon (Yates) made a great attack in the last laps to relieve everyone.

During the opening, technical 2.3km prologue, the overall contenders were able to gain time early on, with Plapp 17 seconds behind the stage winner and around 7 seconds ahead of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and others. However, on Thursday, Plapp crossed the finish line 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the field and also earned a 4-second time bonus.

The two riders who beat Plapp on stage 2 became the only riders ahead of Plapp in the overall standings, but it seems unlikely that they will hold that position until the race against the clock on stage 3. Enric Mas (Movistar), Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), Ayuso, and Alexandre Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) are also within six seconds of the Jaco-Alula rider.

Another major reshuffle could take place in the 15.5 km time trial in Oron on Friday.

"I'm happy with how I'm feeling and we'll see what happens tomorrow. The TT is my favorite event in the world and I can't wait."