Foethen holds off Perez

The 25-year-old German broke from the peloton seven kilometres from the finish in La Chaux-de-Fonds along with Perez, and sped past the Italian over the final 200 metres with the peloton bearing down on them menacingly.

"It was very close," said Foethen after the race. "I knew the stage from last year's Tour de Suisse, so I knew exactly where I had to attack."

He now moves to third in the general classification, which is still headed by Astana's Paolo Salvoldelli, the winner of Tuesday's prologue.

Before Fothen made his move, six riders had made their mark on the rainy roads of Romandie.

Frenchman Laurent Brochard, road world champion in 1997, Dane Chris Sorensen, Hungary's Laszlo Bodrogi and Italian Eros Capecchi, later joined by Italians Mauro Facci and Raffaele Ferrara, broke after 18 km and were only caught with 15 km to go.

Savoldelli's Astana team did most of the work to bridge the gap and the Italian was full of thanks.

"Our tactics today were to control the race and that's what we did. I'm happy to have kept the jersey because it was very cold today," he said.

Thursday's second stage takes the riders from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Lucens over 166.9 km.