The 19th World Tour event of the season will see Fernando Gaviria and Elia Viviani race together for the first time this season.
First World Tour stage race in nearly three weeks, the Tour de Romandie (24-29 April) won't have a mountain top finish for the 72nd edition, but this doesn't mean the riders lining out in Fribourg won't be up for a tough week, as the Swiss event will include a hilly prologue, an uphill individual time trial and 15 categorised ascents, making it more a climbers' heaven and less a sprinters' delight, with the latter having to work hard in order to fight for a win.
The Swiss race will mark Fernando Gaviria's return to action, after an injury he had picked up on the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico forced the 23-year-old Colombian to take a break, sidelining him for the Spring Classics.
"Missing all those beautiful races was a blow for me, especially as I was in a good condition. I was sad and frustrated, but this only fueled my motivation to work hard and come back to racing fully recovered. I've raced only once before in Switzerland, in my debut season with the pros, but this will be my first time in the Tour de Romandie and I'm excited and eager to join again my teammates and ease back into racing as I start my second half of the season, which I hope to be an injury-free and successful one."
Winner of four races this year, Gaviria will team-up with another Quick-Step Floors rider who has tasted success on numerous occasions since the start of the season, Elia Viviani, for whom the Tour de Romandie will be the last race before flying to the start of the Giro d'Italia.
Eros Capecchi, neo-pro James Knox, Davide Martinelli, Michael Mørkøv and Fabio Sabatini will round out the team for the six-day race in which our outfit has won a total of seven stages at the previous participations.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images
