Peter Kennaugh made his return to competitive action earlier this week.

The Manxman has been sidelined for the majority of the 2018 cycling season so far and had not raced since the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia at the end of January.

The 28-year-old has worked his way back to fitness and was therefore included in BORA-Hangrohe’s seven-man team for the Tour of Romandie which got underway on Tuesday.

The five-stage race in Switzerland began with a 4.02 kilometre prologue around Fribourg which featured cobbled sections plus a difficult climb to the finish which reached gradients of 12 per cent.

Kennaugh crossed the line in 92nd place, some 33 seconds down on stage winner Michael Matthews.

The Manxman then followed that up by finishing 103rd in Wednesday’s first stage proper, a 166.6km affair to Delemont.

l Fellow Manxie Mark Christian was also in action earlier this week when he took part in the one-day classic Liège-Bastogne-Liège in Belgium. The Aqua Blue Sport rider produced a gutsy performance and was the second leading Briton - behind Geraint Thomas - when crossing the line in 71st place.

Christian is next due to ride in the Tour of Yorkshire which begins next week. Also confirmed to ride in the four-day event is Mark Cavendish who will be making his comeback from injury having missed the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

The Manx Missile suffered a series of crashes in the Abu Dhabi Tour, Tirreno Adriatico and the Milan-San Remo races which have curtailed his season so far, therefore he’ll be desperate to come through the Yorkshire race unscathed as he bids to be fit for this year’s Grand Tours.

After Yorkshire, Cav is expected to ride in the Amgen Tour of California which kicks off in America on May 13.

Also racing in Yorkshire is Ben Swift and Tom Mazzone.