Tour de Romandie, April 29th - May 4th

[Berniece]

Barely two days after Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the focus of the WorldTour teams shifts to Romandie, where one of the tougher stage races of (around) a week is on the program. We don't see many Giro favourites here anymore, but that doesn't make the starting list any less interesting.

Here's a collection of stage recaps and interviews of last year.

Stages

Top competitors

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Even compared to recent years, this is an underwhelming field for both GC and everything else.

Brennan should do Catalunya all over again and for GC, it should be Almeida because Evenepoel doesn't tend to do well at climbs the size of Thyon 2000 when he hasn't prepared/been able to prepare his best climbing form and I don't see who else is supposed to win.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Ole G for the win!

But seriously, I hope Remco has a good Romandie and can put some more miles into his legs, and my biggest challenge will be watching it on SRF and deciphering Swiss German.

 

[Netserk]

Expected (local) finish time is 17:30 for the weekdays and 16:00 in the weekend.

Official stage profiles:

Road book: https://www.tourderomandie.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Programme_TDR2025-1.pdf

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Expected (local) finish time is 17:30 for the weekdays and 16:00 in the weekend.

Official stage profiles:

Road book: https://www.tourderomandie.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Programme_TDR2025-1.pdf

I'm looking forward to the scenery already!

 

[Red Rick]

I love how they use the same Itzulia style Murito twice in two different stages, both pointlessly far from the finish.

And you also have to love the random x and y axes on the original profiles.

 

[Sciatic]

Ole G for the win!

But seriously, I hope Remco has a good Romandie and can put some more miles into his legs, and my biggest challenge will be watching it on SRF and deciphering Swiss German.

SRF usually has a French broadcast as well--if that is any better

 

[search]

And you also have to love the random x and y axes on the original profiles.

yep, bring back proper Romandie style profiles!

 

[Mayomaniac]

Yeah, Almeida should win this one against this field. I can see Carlos Rodriguez and Lenny Martinez finishing on the podium.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Unless Almeida somehow pulls an Almeida this should be a lock.

 

[RedheadDane]

Ole G for the win!

This guy?

CQ Ranking - GILBU Ole-Morten

CQ Ranking is the world's leading cycling ranking and extensive results database. Also known as Cycling Quotient.

cqranking.com

(I know what you mean...)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

This guy?

CQ Ranking - GILBU Ole-Morten

CQ Ranking is the world's leading cycling ranking and extensive results database. Also known as Cycling Quotient.

cqranking.com

(I know what you mean...)

I instantly thought of Ole Gunnar Solskjær and wondered whether INEOS had been inspired by Uno-X to make a throwback campaign of their own.

 

[noob]

Why is Remco going here? Is it just to fill out his calendar/get miles in legs🦵 or because they thought he would clean it up?

I'm never convinced Almeida will win because if I was I'd have no reason to watch it other than scenery 😁 (Almeida pain face though is a treat so maybe theoretically that could be a reason)

So this might be like giro 21 but with Remco and Almeida on different teams. Their shapes seams similar to that time. Remco coming back from a crash and Almeida in good shape. 🍸

 

[SHAD0W93]

If still in shape Almeida will win by around 60-90 seconds with a stage win.

 

[Tim Cahill]

V$ne will win this if they let him, apparently he's also doing the Giro, odd choice.

 

[search]

nice start there. Remco to attack from the gun to get in some proper training?

 

[Didinho]

Some random prologue winner with all the corners. Could be anyone.

Almeida to clean up easily. Expecting Remco to win a stage after dropping out of GC. And the last TT should be his.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Some random prologue winner with all the corners. Could be anyone.

Almeida to clean up easily. Expecting Remco to win a stage after dropping out of GC. And the last TT should be his.

Milan and Vernon doing other races with Cameron Scott fleeing to a conti team because they all lack the minerals to go head-to-head with Zijlaard on this parcours.

 

[Rockestar_33]

Plapp to win .

In all seriousness, Almeida should win but I'll put Oscar Onley as a podium smokie too

 

[sam6]

Surely Evenepoel has to be the favourite. I know how had a bad LBL but there are 2 ITTs and that is a lot of time he can put into the field. I suspect the race will be similar to Algarve, but with Evenepoel instead of Vingegaard. Almeida may win the MTF but Evenepoel will put enough time in the TT to take the GC win

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Nobody from Visma? No Kuss even?

 

[Potomac]

why such a weak field this year?

 

[Rockestar_33]

Nobody from Visma? No Kuss even?

Brennan looks like their leader tbh.

why such a weak field this year?

Probably a mix of spring classics, a little close to the Giro and a little far from the Tour?

 

[Pantani_lives]

This is a pretty tough course for the TdR. The first two stages have an extremely steep 3 km climb, but they're both far from the finish. The long MTF Thyon 2000 is comparable to the Tourmalet, so climbers can take time before the decisive time trial.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Underwhelming field, underwhelming parcours. Overwhelming scenery.

Almeida is the obvious pick to win GC. I hope Evenepoel is in good enough shape to challenge him, but based on what we saw in Fleche and Liege, he'll be nowhere. I'm very curious what happened in Liege.

Who could challenge Almeida then? Martinez might be the best bet, even if he'll lose some time in the ITT. Rodriguez is the only other rider I can imagine pose a threat to Almeida, but it's hard to see him being too competitive here coming back from an injury (although he did quite well in Liege, actually).