75th Tour de Romandie (2.UWT) // 27th of April - 2nd of May 2021

[Mayomaniac]

How many Swiss rouleurs do you want in the breakaway?
Yes.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

They will start two hours earlier tomorrow due to a risk of snow later in the day. So they will finish at approx. 15:15 local time.

 

[roundabout]

Spectacle is not only about a Pogacar vs Roglic for 60 KMs.

First stage had two decent consecutive hills to serve as a launchpad for attackers or for durable fast men to use their teams and drop Sagan.

Yesterday's stage offered opportunities but only Woods tried. KOM was 17 KMS to finish, not 60.

Today the profile seems tailored for a late attack for punchy riders, even Woods could try to drop INEOS on those very steep hills.

The only thing the race lacks is a final hard mid-mountain stage (like Itzulia or usual Paris-Nice Col d'Eze stage) to give teams a final opportunity to (try to) destroy the leader's team, but that doesn't mean it is not a good race design or does not offer opportunities. On the contrary, every stage has something interesting to watch.

Given the loss of Martigny Worlds, yesterdays stage should have been bumped up in difficulty (unless that was a bumped up version). 2 or 3 Mont-Soleil - Mont-Crosin circuits at the end would have made for a worthy replacement.

And you hit on the major weakness of most Romandie routes. The big mountain stage is usually on the penultimate day. I guess there are reasons for that, but it limits the variation of how the difficulty can be distributed.

 

[JosefK]

Froome is already in the grupetto today.

 

[MartinGT]

Too much bench pressing in the off season apparently.

 

[MartinGT]

Looks an absolute minging day

 

[Red Rick]

2012+ Schleck vs 2021 Froome very stoppable force vs easily movable object who wins?

 

[70kmph]

Get donkey a carrot...

 

[Escarabajo]

2021 Tour of Romandie has been surprisingly boring. Very boring. I am starting to understand why they have the 2 ITT!

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm just waiting for Küng to start doing his Romandie Thing.
Or rather, the second part of his Romandie Thing; he's already doing the first part.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Froome might actually make it back to the peloton (before he gets dropped again).

 

[woodburn]

2012+ Schleck vs 2021 Froome very stoppable force vs easily movable object who wins?

Schleck was not good but at least was building toward something before the Dauphine crash. Froome seems to be engaging some sort of mental gymnastics to validate the possibility of him winning again.

Crazy fact: Froome is a month older than Schleck. Wild to think he has been retired for almost seven years.

 

[Laplaz]

Colbrelli weather

 

[Sciatic]

Kung needs a pocket organizer

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Fortunate for that moto that Küng hasn't brought his army knife (yes, I do think every Swiss has one)

 

[RedheadDane]

Küng: There can only be one Stefan in this group!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Ouch!

 

[RedheadDane]

Küng crashed!
He's on his feet again, luckily...

 

[woodburn]

That looked awful for Kung.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

This descent looks awful in this weather, glad Küng looks more or less okay.

 

[woodburn]

Back on his bike. These guys are nuts.

 

[Savant12]

Damn! He just got tossed around.

 

[Escarabajo]

They both took the same line on that curve. So there must be the difference in tires I guess.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

He must be made of granite to be back on the bike after slamming into the curb at that speed

 

[Carols]

Holy Crap...nasty fall for Kung. Thankfully he didn't break his pelvis......