Slovene Simon Spilak won the fourth stage of the Tour of Romandie on Saturday as Chris Froome extended his overall lead. Briton Froome tightened his grip on the yellow jersey as he finished just behind Spilak after 188.5km from Marly to Les Diablerets. In dismal weather conditions the lead pair finished more than a minute ahead of Rui Alberto Da Costa, leaving Froome with a 47sec advantage over Spilak ahead of Sunday's final stage. stp/gv/bc/pi

Britain's Chris Froome, the pre-race favourite, on Tuesday won the Tour of Romandie prologue, a 7.4km ride between Chable and Bruson, in a time of 13min 15secs. The Sky team leader overtook Spain's Dani Moreno - the winner of last week's Fleche Wallonne - in a strong finish and crossed the line six seconds ahead of American rider Andrew Talansky. Croatia's Robert Kiserlovski, was third, 13 seconds adrift of first place, while Australia's Richie Porte, a Sky team-mate of Froome, was fourth at 15secs.

Tour de France hopefuls Alberto Contador and Chris Froome will be the two star names at the Grand Boucle's main warm-up event the Criterium de Dauphine in June, organisers said on Monday. The week-long event is often seen as a good marker for Tour form and Briton Bradley Wiggins won last year before going on to triumph in cycling's biggest race. The June 2-9 course will tackle the epic Alpe d'Huez on its penultimate stage. That stage will be seen as a particularly important gauge of form as the famous climb will feature twice during the Tour in July.

Tour de France runner-up Chris Froome won the two-day Criterium International on the Mediterranean island of Corsica on Sunday. The Briton, who won the third and final stage, was followed home by his Team Sky teammate, Australian Richie Porte, the overnight leader. jm-pga/nr/ps