The season’s 20th stop on the World Tour calendar will also be our last stage race before the Giro d’Italia.
Twenty-six kilometers of individual time trial spread over two stages and a tough mountain finish atop Thyon 2000 (20.7km, 7.7%) on the penultimate day will be the key points of the 76th Tour de Romandie, which kicks off next Tuesday from Le Bouveret, a small town in the canton of Valais, before concluding in Geneva, the most populous city of the region.
Having won a total of eighteen races with ten different riders since the beginning of the season, Soudal Quick-Step will look to add to that solid palmares in Switzerland, a country where our team has tasted success on a total of twenty-two occasions since 2003.
Rémi Cavagna – a double stage winner at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali this season – Josef Cerny, Dries Devenyns, James Knox, Fausto Masnada, who two years ago became the first Italian since 2008 to finish on the Romandie podium, Casper Pedersen and Ethan Vernon will be Soudal Quick-Step’s men for the 76th edition of the race.
“We can hope for some good results from Rémi in the two individual time trials, he’s in solid form this spring as shown in Italy and Belgium, and those two stages will be his goal. Ethan and Casper are our guys for the race’s one, possibly two bunch sprints, while James and Fausto will try to do something nice in the hard stages of the race”, said sports director Tom Steels.
Photo credit: ©Luis Angel Gomez / Getty Images
