GENEVA — Cadel Evans of Australia won his second Tour de Romandie title Sunday, finishing safely in the pack during a final stage won by Britain's Ben Swift.
Evans retained his 18-second lead in the overall standings on runner-up Tony Martin of Germany after the 102.3-mile ride from Champagne to Geneva. The 34-year-old Aussie also won the six-day race in 2006.
"It's almost my home-away-from-home race," said Evans, who rides for the Swiss-American BMC Racing team and lives in Switzerland near the border with Italy. "It's a race that suits me well with a time trial and harder mountain stages."
Swift sprinted to his fourth stage win of the season for Team Sky, finishing in 3 hours, 50 minutes, 51 seconds to edge three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Spain. Davide Vigano of Italy was third.
"My team did an absolutely brilliant job until the end. I couldn't ask for anything more. To beat a great champion like Oscar is fantastic," said Swift, who next races in the May 15-22 Tour of California.
Martin placed seventh in the sprint finish Sunday.
Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, who tried to break away in the final kilometer, was another second back in third overall.
The cycling circuit now moves to the three-week Giro d'Italia starting Saturday, but Evans has chosen to skip the year's first Grand Tour after finishing fifth in 2010.
"I'm going home to rest. I'll keep working toward the Dauphine (in June) but my first objective for the year is the Tour de France," said Evans, the Tour runner-up in 2007 and '08.