Fribourg is a regular host to the Tour de Romandie. Four years ago the town served as the hub of a circuit race through the surrounding area, which culminated in a three-up sprint with home-rider Michael Albasini outgunning Thomas Voeckler and Jan Bakelants. In 2015, the Tour de Romandie’s 4th stage arrived in the town with one of the largest contiguous medieval centers in Europe. Once again, a home-rider took the stage honours as Stefan Küng soloed to victory. The following day the Queen Stage ran from Fribourg to Champex and Thibaut Pinot climbed to the stage win.
This time, the Tour de Romandie begins in Fribourg with a 4 kilometres prologue. The first 1.5 kilometres are flat before a short and sharp drop down to the flat middle section. At kilometre 3.2 the riders tackle a 200 metres ramp with double digit gradients. The last 600 metres begin with a false flat to get steeper and steeper and end with another double digit ramp just before the line at Place Georges Python.
In last year’s prologue Fabio Feline outpowered Alex Dowsett and Alexander Edmondson on a 4.8 kilometres course in Aigle.
The first riders leaves the ramp at 15:13 and the arrival of the last one is expected around 17:30 – both are local times.
Tour de Romandie 2018 Prologue: Route maps, height maps, and more
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