Cycling: A top-class starting field will start on Tuesday at the Tour of Romandie: A good two months before the start of the Tour de France, Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali meet.
The provisional starter list for the Tour de Romandie in south-west Switzerland reads like a Who's Who of international professional cycling: Chris Froome (Sky), Nairo Quintana (Moviestar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) are the winners of the last Tour de France and Tour de France respectively .Giro d'Italia editions at the start. Completing last year's Tour podium are Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.FR). Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick Step), ex-world champion Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Simon Spilak (Katusha) also have chances. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) is missing from the squad of top round drivers. On the way to the hoped-for triumph at this year's Giro d'Italia, he forgoes the trip to Switzerland and gets the finishing touches from one he initiated Cycling marathon in Spain.
Demanding stage profiles
Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) and Johannes Fröhlinger (Giant-Alpecin) are holding up the German colors at the Tour de Romandie. Martin will focus in particular on the team time trial on the first day and the individual time trial on the last day of the tour. Fröhlinger, as a known active driver, could speculate on jumping into breakaway groups. Because the profile of the Tour de Romandie encourages strong climbers to flee to the front: at least two mountains of the second category are on the program for each stage. Pure flat stages are not planned. The king's stage on the penultimate day sends riders over four category XNUMX mountains at once, with the day ending with a mountain finish at Champex-Lac. At the latest this climb will be a first indication of where the big Tour de France favorites are at this point in the season. And here it will be seen whether Chris Froome can add a third to his two Romandie victories of the past two years.
The race will be broadcast live on TV in numerous countries, unfortunately Germany is not among them. The organizer has the broadcasting stations and Internet channels in this list for your convenience.
The stages of the Tour de Romandie 2015:
1st stage, Tuesday 28 April: Vallée de Joux – Juraparc, 19 kilometers (team time trial)
Stage 2, Wednesday 29 April: Apples – Saint-Imier, 168 kilometers
Stage 3, Thursday 30 April: Moutier – Porrentrury, 172 kilometres
4th stage, Friday, May 01st: La Neuveville – Fribourg, 169 kilometres
5th stage, Saturday, May 02nd: Friborg – Champex-Lac, 162 kilometers (mountain finish)
Stage 6, Sunday, May 03rd: Lausanne, 17 kilometers (individual time trial)
The teams at the start of the Tour de Romandie 2015:
AG2R – La Mondiale (France)
Astana Pro Team (Kazakhstan)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
Etixx Quick Step (Belgium)
FDJ.FR (France)
IAM Cycling (Switzerland)
Lampre Merida (Italy)
Lotto Soudal (Belgium)
Movistar (Spain)
Orica GreenEdge (Australia)
Cannondale Garmin (USA)
Europcar (France)
Giant Alpecin (Germany)
Katusha (Russia)
Lotto NL-Jumbo (Netherlands)
Team Sky (UK)
Tinkoff Saxo (Russia)
Trek Factory Racing (USA)
The winners of the past ten years:
2014 Chris Froome
2013 Chris Froome
2012 Bradley Wiggins
2011 Cadel Evans
2010 Simon Spilak
2009 Roman Kreutziger
2008 Andreas Kloden
2007 Thomas Dekker
2006 Cadel Evans
2005 Santiago Botero