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Former triple world champion Oscar Freire secured his first victory of the year by winning the second stage of the Tour de Romandie.

The 33-year-old Spaniard perfectly controlled the final sprint in the 161.5km bumpy ride around La Chaux-de-Fonds to cross the line ahead of Czech prologue winner Frantisek Rabon and Kazakh Assan Bazayev.

"I crashed early in the season and it took some time to make it back to my best level," Freire said after the 57th victory of his career.

"But my (Rabobank) team worked well for me today in spite of the many attacks and I'm relieved to snatch one at last in 2009."

Swiss Gregory Rast retained his overall leader's yellow jersey but he had to fight hard for it on the hilly ride.

Frenchmen Mathieu Sprick and Florent Brard were the early escapees of the day, breaking away after 28 km only to be caught 10 km from the finish.

As they were caught, Australia's Cadel Evans, the 2006 Tour de Romandie winner, in turn launched an impressive move on the last climb alongside his Belgian Silence Lotto team mate Philippe Gilbert.

But the two were chased by the leading race contenders and were finally caught by Freire's Rabobank team mates in the suburbs of La Chaux-de-Fonds.

With other top sprinters like Briton Mark Cavendish and Australian Robbie McEwen dropped in the second part of a split bunch, Freire had no real opposition in the last stretch.

The twice Milan-San Remo winner and four-times Tour de France stage winner made it clear he had ambitions for the rest of the year.

"I would love to win the Tour de France green jersey (points classification)," he said.

"But my greatest goal is to become the first rider to win the world championship four times, especially as the next worlds take place near home."

Freire lives in Switzerland, near Mendrisio, where the road world championships take place later this year.

Reuters