Richie Porte back to defend his Tour of Romandie title
Teammate Tejay van Garderen joins BMC's line-up for the tough six-day Swiss race as they continue their preparation for the Tour de France in July
The 72nd Tour de Romandie starts Tuesday April 24th and runs to Sunday April 29th 2018.
The Swiss WorldTour race dates back to 1947. The 2018 edition features a prologue and a long-busting uphill time trial on the fourth day of action. The 4th stage is the race’s Queen Stage, featuring five mountain passes with over 3,584 vertical metres of climbing.
Defending champion Richie Porte is back, last year Simon Yates and Primoz Roglic completed the podium.
Porte told the press recently "I'm not putting too much pressure on myself heading into the Tour de Romandie this year as I don't really know where my form is," Porte said. "However, while I have more modest ambitions this year, it is a race I enjoy so I will be going there ready to give 100%. Overall, I think we have a good group of riders lining up so, I am looking forward to getting started."
The BMC racing team will no doubt have Andy Rihs in mind. The BMC Racing Team owner died from leukaemia last week at the age of 75.
The six-day race in the French-speaking part of Switzerland takes in a lot of climbs, and features one mountain finish. The uphill time trial on the fourth stage is 9.9 kilometres at 8% before the possibly decisive Queen stage takes in an altitude gain of 3,584 metres on Stage 5.
The Tour de Romandie starts off with a prologue of a flat 4 kilometres. The race is a climber delights and features several double digits gradients.
Stage 1 features four mountain climbs and ends on a descent.
Stage 2 features 1,988 vertical metres and two mountain climbs.
After a few warm up stages, the best is yet to come
Stage 3 is an individual uphill time trial, best suite to the best climbers. It's 9.9 kilometres at almost 8%.
The Queen Stage 4 is a brutal challenge in the High Mountains – 3,584 vertical metres and five mountainsclimbs before the stage finishes with a long descent and flat run-in through the Rhône Valley.
The last stage probably won’t affect the GC. It features three mountain climbs, but the last 100 kilometres are on flat and rolling roads, which will suit a stage sprint, the only opportunity for the fast men.
The Favorites
Only Richie Porte and Simon Spilak who won in 2010 are at the start line for this year's edition 72nd edition of the race.
Paris-Nice cahmpion Marc Soler and ITT specialist Primoz Roglic are contenders who are on form at the moment. Slovenian Primoz Roglic the Tour of the Basque Country and showed form at Tirreno-Adriatico suffering a mechanical problem on the Queen Stage, as did Geraint Thomas.
The route of the Tour de Romandie will suit the best climbers who can time trial. Porte has only showed any real form at the Tour Down Under and Tour of the Basque Country and has been fairly innocuous since.
The most likely favorites apart from Porte are Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, UAE Emirate's Rui Costa who's podiumed three times pereviously and Lotto Jumbo's Primoz Roglic.
Outsiders who could animate the race are Marc Soler, Steven Kruijswijk and in form Jakob Fuglsang, Tejay van Garderen and Dam Martin likely to throw some punches, it should be a great week of racing and again highlight who's in form ahead of the Grand Tours.
Start List
Ag2r La Mondiale
BAKELANTS Jan | BEL
DENZ Nico | GER
DILLIER Silvan | SUI
DOMONT Axel | FRA
DUMOULIN Samuel | FRA
FRANK Mathias | SUI
LATOUR Pierre | FRA
Astana
FUGLSANG Jakob | DEN
CATALDO Dario | ITA
FRAILE Omar | ESP
GRIVKO Andriy | UKR
HANSEN Jesper | DEN
HOULE Hugo | CAN
KANGERT Tanel | EST
Bahrain-Merida
COLBRELLI Sonny | ITA
GASPAROTTO Enrico | ITA
IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka | ESP
IZAGIRRE INSAUSTI Jon | ESP
KOREN Kristjan | SLO
NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas | LTU
PERNSTEINER Hermann | AUT
BMC Racing Team
BOHLI Tom | SUI
DENNIS Rohan | AUS
FRANKINY Kilian | SUI
PORTE Richie | AUS
ROSSKOPF Joseph | USA
VAN GARDEREN Tejay | USA
WYSS Danilo | SUI
Bora-Hansgrohe
ACKERMANN Pascal | GER
BASKA Erik | SVK
BUCHMANN Emanuel | GER
KENNAUGH Peter | GBR
POLJANSKI Pawel | POL
SCHILLINGER Andreas | GER
SELIG Rüdiger | GER
Groupama-FDJ
GAUDU David | FRA
CIMOLAï Davide | ITA
LUDVIGSSON Tobias | SWE
MOLARD Rudy | FRA
THOMAS Benjamin | FRA
VICHOT Arthur | FRA
VINCENT Léo | FRA
Lotto-Soudal
ARMEE Sander | BEL
CAMPENAERTS Victor | BEL
DE GENDT Thomas | BEL
KEUKELEIRE Jens | BEL
MERTZ Rémy | BEL
SHAW James | GBR
WOUTERS Enzo | BEL
Mitchelton-Scott
ALBASINI Michael | SUI
HAMILTON Lucas | AUS
HOWSON Damien | AUS
NIEVE Mikel | ESP
POWER Robert | AUS
TUFT Svein | CAN
VERONA Quintanilla Carlos | ESP
Movistar
AMADOR Andrey | CRC
FERNANDEZ Rubén | ESP
QUINTANA Dayer Urberney | COL
ROSON Jaime | ESP
VALLS Rafael | ESP
SOLER Marc | ESP
BICO Nuno Miguel | POR
Quick-Step Floors
CAPECCHI Eros | ITA
GAVIRIA RENDON Fernando | COL
KNOX James | GBR
MARTINELLI Davide | ITA
MORKOV Michael | DEN
SABATINI Fabio | ITA
VIVIANI Elia | ITA
Dimension Data
DLAMINI Nicholas | RSA
EISEL Bernhard | AUT
GHEBREIGZABHIER Amanuel | ERI
KUDUS Merhawi | ERI
VAN ZYL Johann | RSA
VENTER Jaco | RSA
RENSHAW Mark | AUS
EF Education First-Drapac
BROWN Nathan | USA
CANTY Brendan | AUS
CARTHY Hugh | GBR
CLARKE William | AUS
DOMBROWSKI Joe | USA
MARTINEZ Daniel Felipe | COL
ROLLAND Pierre | FRA
Katusha-Alpecin
BELKOV Maxim | RUS
DOWSETT Alex | GBR
FABBRO Matteo | ITA
KISERLOVSKI Robert | CRO
PLANCKAERT Baptiste | BEL
SPILAK Simon | SLO
SCHMIDT Mads Würtz | DEN
LottoNL-Jumbo
BOOM Lars | NED
CLEMENT Stef | NED
KRUIJSWIJK Steven | NED
LINDEMAN Bert-Jan | NED
OLIVIER Daan | NED
ROGLIC Primoz | SLO
TANKINK Bram | NED
Team Sky
BASSO Leonardo | ITA
CASTROVIEJO Nicolas Jonathan | ESP
GOLAS Michal | POL
LOPEZ GARCIA David | ESP
ROWE Luke | GBR
SIVAKOV Pavel | FRA
GERAINT Thomas | GBR
Team Sunweb
GESCHKE Simon | GER
KÄMNA Lennard | GER
MATTHEWS Michael | AUS
STAMSNIJDER Tom | NED
STORER Michael | AUS
TEN DAM Laurens | NED
VERVAEKE Louis | BEL
Trek-Segafredo
BERNARD Julien | FRA
BRÄNDLE Matthias | AUT
CONCI Nicola | ITA
DANIEL Gregory | USA
GEBREMARYAM Tsgabu | ETH
PANTANO Jarlinson | COL
SKUJINS Toms | LAT
UAE Team Emirates
AIT EL ABDIA Anass | MOR
ATAPUMA HURTADA Jhon Darwin | COL
BONO Matteo | ITA
DURASEK Kristijan | CRO
FARIA DA COSTA Rui Alberto | POR
MARTIN Daniel John | IRL
SWIFT Ben | GBR
Wanty-Groupe Gobert
DEGAND Thomas | BEL
DOUBEY Fabien | FRA
EIKING Odd Christian | NOR
MARTIN Guillaume | FRA
MEURISSE Xandro | BEL
MINNAARD Marinus | NED
SMITH Dion | NZL