Tour de Romandie 2019: The Route

The Tour de Romandie started last Tuesday to finish on Sunday. The mountainous 6-day race in the French-speaking part of Switzerland includes two chrono races..

The race kicks off with a 3.9 kilometres prologue through Neuchâtel. The parcours is flat for the most part. Tony Martin, Primoz Roglic, and Geraint Thomas all line up as potential suitors for the race’s first leader’s jersey.

Stage 1 from Neuchâtel to La Chaux de Fonds, with its 2,700 metres of climbing, will almost certainly prove too testing for the pure sprinters who have ventured to Romandie. Yet, a sprint of a small group of resilient all-rounders is not to be ruled out.

La Locle and Morges are the start and finish place of the 2nd stage. The 174 kilometres test contains 1,819 metres of climbing, but a bunch sprint is a viable scenario as the last climb is crested with 30 remaining. Then again, Thomas De Gendt is riding the Tour de Romandie…

The Tour de Romandie serves another lumpy route in stage 3. The out-and-back race in Romont finishes on an incline with shallow gradients. Sprint of strong men, or attackers?

The Queen Stage starts in Lucens and finishes in Torgon. The race comprises five major classified climbs and almost 3,500 metres of ascents. The four toughest climbs all come inside the last 100 kilometres, while the final haul up to the line is 12 kilometres at 6%. [5 May: reduced due to bad weather to 107.6 kilometres with an altitude gain of 1,998 metres]

Just like two years ago, the ITT at the Tour de Romandie comes on the final day in Geneva. That stage was won by Primoz Roglic ahead of Richie Porte, who sealed his overall victory. Yet, the route of this time trial is not as hilly, though it is far from flat either.