Greg Henderson put in a storming ride in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie and ended the day in seventh place, less than six seconds behind eventual winner Marco Pinotti.

Henderson looked fully refreshed after a short break in his race programme and hurtled around the 4.3km course in Porrentruy in five minutes 23.41 seconds, just 5.89 seconds adrift of his former HTC-Columbia team-mate.

Liquigas rider Peter Sagan took second place after crossing the finish line just under a second behind Pinotti, with Française Des Jeux's Jérémy Roy a further two seconds adrift in third.

Ben Swift was the next highest ranked Team Sky rider in 53rd position, and he ended the day 13.17 seconds off the pace.

Yates hails Henderson effort

Back in the team bus sports director Sean Yates was full of praise for Henderson's efforts and hinted the New Zealander could be in the mix again when the race gets underway properly on Wednesday.

He said: "Greg had a good ride and kept the Team Sky flag flying. He's not raced since Paris-Roubaix and after a short break he's now getting himself ready for the next part of the season.

"Seventh might not initially sound spectacular but when you see he's beaten the likes of Alejandro Valverde, Roman Kreuziger and Philippe Gilbert it becomes clear how strong it was. His ride has kept us in the game and now we'll look forward to tomorrow and see what happens.

"That stage is pretty lumpy so we will have to see how it pans out. Greg is not a climber, but if he can get over those hills and it comes back together for a group sprint he could maybe mix it up with HTC-Columbia, who have their A team here, at the end.

"Mark Cavendish did OK today but he's not on top form after his rough start to the year, and if it does come down to a sprint and they lead him out, we'll be looking for Greg to swing off their train and take him on at the end. If we have to throw in a couple of riders of our own to bring it back together we'll do that."

On a slightly more worrying note, Chris Froome had gone into the race suffering from a chest infection and his condition took a turn for the worse when he crashed on the day's final corner. Yates admitted the team would make a decision on Tuesday night to see whether the 24-year-old is fit to continue.

He added: "Chris is in the Giro d'Italia squad so we have to do the right thing for him and the right thing for the team. There's no point running him into the ground. He cut himself up pretty badly out there."