Tour de Romandie 2014 Route stage 2: Sion-Montreux

Thursday May 1st, 2014 – The ride from the medieval Sion to Montreux is 166.5 kilometres. Two category 3 climbs in the second part of the stage and what should be an exciting downhill finale. (Slideshow route/profile)

Tour de Romandie 2014: Route stage 2 Sion - Montreaux

Montreux is famous for the visits of rockers like The Rolling Stones, Queen and David Bowie, with a statue of Freddy Mercury one of the main attractions. The city itself is at an altitude of 590 metres. The riders arrive in the town halfway through the stage, but the organization the sends them up into the hills for 2 category 3 climbs.

The first mountains points are up for grabs just after Chatel-St-Denis. Short descent, short ascent - and then the first intermediate sprint is in Semsales, after 89.5 kilometres. The village lies in a plateau with undulating terrain that the riders spend about 10 kilometres navigating.

The next 30 kilometres is quite bumpy until they reach Peney-Le-Jorat, where aspiring riders for the mountains classification will fight it out for the points on offer. The second intermediate sprint is in Chardonne, halfway down the final descent, so this will probably be a high-speed affair.

At around 7 kilometres from the finish, the descending is interrupted by a short climb but then it's downhill again all the way to the line.

The stage begins at 13:10 CET, and the finish is expected around 17:15.