Our team won eight stages at the previous participations.
For the 75th edition, the Tour de Romandie leader’s jersey will switch from yellow to green, its original color from the early years of the race. It will be the most important change of the Swiss competition, which will follow a familiar pattern, with individual time trials bookending the event that will start in Lausanne and conclude in Villars.
A hilly first stage to Romont, with a punchy finish, could change the GC leader before a trek around Echallens that the baroudeurs should love. The queen stage will occur on the penultimate day of the World Tour race, when a total of six classified climbs – five of which are first-category – have the potential to create some wide gaps between the green jersey contenders, especially if the weather will be atrocious, which wouldn’t be something uncommon for Romandie. Just like at the past two editions, the race will bring down the curtain with an ITT, albeit an uphill one, which will only complicate matters.
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl will go to the start with a team featuring Mattia Cattaneo, French Champion Rémi Cavagna – who last year won the final Romandie stage against the clock – Coppi e Bartali stage victors Josef Cerny and Mauro Schmid, Mikkel Honoré, James Knox, and neo-pro Ethan Vernon, one of the youngest riders to score a World Tour victory this season.
“We are traveling to Switzerland with a good squad and we expect an exciting race, one where we will try to grab every opportunity, and there should be a few for us. Rémi will once again target the time trials and he is capable of getting some good results there, but we also have other riders capable of doing something nice next week, so the confidence is high going into the race”, said Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director Rik Van Slycke.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
