Froome and Porte to go head-to-head at the Tour de Romandie
Team Sky's Chris Froome and BMC racing's Richie Porte will go head-to-head, starting on Tuesday April 23rd, at this year's Tour de Romandie.
They will race for the first time since last year’s Tour de France
Other big names Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali are not starting so the two riders will be the favorites for the general classification.
Froome won the Tour de Romandie in 2013 and 2014, but hasn't had the best start to the season, only a second place finish on a summit finish in the Volta a Catalunya.
He went on to lose a massive 27 minutes on the penultimate stage after Team Sky's sports director admitted they had missed the break.
Richie Porte won the Tour Down Under for the first time and the former Team Sky rider is relishing his role as team leader for the forthcoming season.
His Grand Tour dreams last year continued to be ruined by bad luck. A stage two puncture and a crash caused by a TV motorbike on stage 12 saw him finish fifth in the Tour de France when a podium spot beckoned.
Porte says his good friend and former teammate Chris Froome wasn’t bulletproof in France and is looking forward to this years showdown.
After a disastrous start on the first two stages of Paris Nice, Porte fought back winning the Queen stage, attacking on the final climb.
Tour de Romandie starts Tuesday April 25th and finishes on April 30th, and you can keep up with all the action on our 2017 Tour of Romandie LIVESTREAM.
It starts with a prologue time trial in Aigle, and finish five days later with another time trial in Lausanne. Stages one and four are key stages with mountain top finishes.
VIDEO: 2016 Tour of Romanie Highlights