The Tour de Romandie gets underway tomorrow in Le Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The 6 day UCI World Tour stage race will conclude on Sunday 1 May and a star studded field is expected.
The event is comprised of a short 4km opening prologue, another individual time trial on stage 3 and then 4 road stages. Stage 1 could definitely be an opportunity for the sprinters and stage 2 ends with a category 1 climb into Mons, so the GC contenders should come to the fore here. The stage 3 individual time trial is only 15km but with a fair climb in the middle of the stage, it will be a tough test against the clock. Stage 4 will be the GC defining day as the peloton is set for 2 category 3 and 3 category 1 climbs as they head from Conthey to Villar’s-Sur-Ollon. The race ends with an undulating route into Geneve, though the chances of another sprint finish are likely.
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka will send a strong and versatile squad to suit this challenging route. Kanstantsin Siutsou and Kristian Sbaragli will be two of our key riders in Romandie as they add the final touches to their Giro d’ Italia preparations. Merhawi Kudus will hope to shine on the mountain stages with Natnael Berhane also one for the tougher stages. Our South African champion, Jaco Venter, will be joined by Cameron Meyer, Songezo Jim and Youcef Reguigui to complete our line-up.
Oli Cookson – Sport Director
