Male Team 24 - 29 Apr
Tour de Romandie
682 Kilometers 6 Stages
Plenty of mountains with not-so-steep slopes = enough to see lots of moves and spectacle. That’s the formula the Tour de Romandie continues to offer year after year, a traditional multi-day event between the spring classics and the upcoming Giro d’Italia. A useful test for TDF contenders -who later use the month of May to rest up- which, contrary to previous editions, will not include any mountain-top finishes in 2018.
A tough prologue in Fribourg (4km, Tuesday 24th), with cobblestones and slopes up to 10% on the final kilometer, will open a race where the sprinters will be offered two chances to succeed on Wednesday and Thursday: a tough stage two, with two climbs to Bruisberg (Cat-2) around Delémont, and an easier finale towards Yverdon on day three.
The GC will start getting defined at a 10km mountain TT from Ollon to Villars (Friday 27th), with an average gradient over 8%, and will be surely decide at Saturday’s 149km Queen stage around Sion, with no less than five climbs: Ovronnaz (Cat-1), Vercorin (Cat-1), Nax (Cat-2), Suen (Cat-2) and Collons (Cat-1) – the latter crested with 28km to go. The final stage (Sunday 29th) to Geneva will be longer (182km), yet easier and suited for breakaways or fast men.