Ben Swift went one better than Wednesday's hard-fought performance by sprinting to eighth place on stage three of the Tour de Romandie.

The 22-year-old positioned himself cleverly on the back of HTC-Columbia's lead-out train as the peloton hurtled their way back into Fribourg, but was unable to match the kick of Mark Cavendish on the closing straight and could only look on as the Manxman claimed his second victory of the season.

"He did fantastically well to get on that Columbia train," said Team Sky Sports Director Sean Yates of Swift.

"But he just run out of gas - coming off the track programme he hasn't quite got back that finishing kick in the bigger gears yet.

"However more than half the battle is getting into that position because if you are not there you are definitely not going to win, however strong you are. So from that point of view it was encouraging he was able to get on Cav's wheel."

Danilo Hondo (Lampre) and Robert Hunter (Garmin) ended the day in second and third places respectively, and Peter Sagan's fifth-placed finish ensured he retained the leader's yellow jersey.

Clear skies and sunny conditions had greeted the riders at the start of the stage and Chad Beyer (BMC Racing) broke free of the peloton early on for the second time in as many days alongside Alán Pérez (Euskaltel), Dennis van Winden (Rabobank) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Katyusha).

That quartet's lead peaked at around four minutes but had dropped back to just over three by the time they crested the first of two climbs up the Lorette with 64km to go.

With HTC Columbia, Liquigas and Caisse d'Epargne joining forces at the head of the chase pack, that advantage was down to a minute on their second ascent of the same hill and Meyer was dropped as the remaining trio sought to maintain their gains.

Van Winden was unable to hang on much longer though and Pérez and Ignatiev were also reeled in with around 35km of the race remaining.

With the peloton back together further attacks came thick and fast and Matthias Brändle eventually managed to wrestle himself free. Steve Morabito (BMC) and Christophe Riblon (AG2R) momentarily bridged the gap to the Footon Servetto rider but the bunch was as one as they made their way towards the line.

There it was Cavendish who answered his recent critics by notching his first victory since stage two of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya last month.

Swift's brave effort earned Team Sky their third consecutive top 10 finish and moved him up to 41st place in the overall standings.