The 74th edition of the Tour de Romandie starts on 27th April with a first stage prologue of 4km in Oron. It then sees the peloton taking on 12,500 vertical meters over 680 kilometres across the following five stages of racing, making it one of the most challenging editions of the six-day race.

The second stage of 168.1 kilometres from Aigle to Martigny takes on a circuit of four laps that features two category 3 climbs. Stage 3 is 165.7 km long from La Neuveville. The riders take on five category 2 climbs before a final category 1 climb up the La Vue-des-Alpes and then descend down to the finish in Saint-Imier.
Stage 4 starts and finishes in Estavayer, featuring seven category 3 climbs over 168.7 kilometres. The queen stage(stage 5) has three category 1 climbs starting in Sion and finishing 161 kilometres later, with a summit finish on Thyon 2000. The race concludes with a 16.2 km ITT in Fribourg.

Sports Director Rolf Aldag shared the team goals ahead of the race: “The Tour de Romandie has two time trials, so it’s important to focus on that for different reasons. Firstly, Jan Tratnik historically won the prologue, so we think we have a fair chance with him. Also, with the GC ambitions, we have to make sure we get the best possible outcome of that prologue and TT on stage 6. So we’ll be doing the recon of the TT on Monday to really be prepared mentally. 

There will also be two sprint stages, potentially with one having a hill in the final that suits Sonny Colbrelli, who’s been in good form lately. For the GC ambition, we have Caruso, who can do great in this style of racing in the mountains. We’ve also got Jack Haig, who is always good to stay with the best on the climbs. Specifically, Stage 4 is something we can target with Haig, Caruso, Pernsteiner and Williams. 

We’ve got an overall plan to ride offensive and aggressive to make other people’s lives hard because our riders’ quality is really high. We are really motivated and looking forward to a great race.”