Sagan, Thomas and Froome headline Mountainous Tour de Romandie
The Tour de Romandie has unveiled the 2021 route and provisional start list for the 75th edition which returns on April 27th
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation) are headline riders set to line up at the prologue in Oron to kick off the six-day stage race.
Other top riders will also be startingr the Swiss WorldTour race, including Miguel Ángel López (Movistar), Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo), Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma), Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Fausto Masnada (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Richie Porte (Ineos Grenadiers) and Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates).
The 2021 six-day stage race boasts over 12,500 metres of climbing, a new record for the 75th edition.
The race starts with 4.5-kilometre prologue in Oron on Tuesday April 27, with a climb to the line the first challenge for the GC conrtenders.
Stage 1 runs 168 kilometres from Aigle – the headquarters of the UCI – to Martigny, featuring four laps of a tough hilly circuit which will see the peloton tackle two third-category climbs each time around.
Stage 2 runs 165 kilometres from La Neuveville to St Imier and features 3,435 metres of climbing with five second-category climbs along the way before the first-category La Vue-des-Alpes 17 kilometres from the line.
The 168-kilometre stage 3 starts and finishes in Estavayer, featuring seven third-category climbs along the way.
Stage 4, the Queen stage is the toughest of the race. The 161-kilometre stage from Sion to Thyon 2000 brings includes three category-1 climbs, including the 20-kilometre summit finish, for a total of 4,157 metres of climbing.
The race closes with a hilly 16.2-kilometre time trial which will decide the final destination of the yellow jersey.
Swiss riders include Tour de France stage winner Hirschi as well as Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), and Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Nippo), Mathias Frank (AG2R Citroën), Tom Bohli (Cofidis), Matteo Badilatti, Fabian Lienhard, Sébastien Reichenbach (Groupama-FDJ), Reto Hollenstein (Israel Start-Up Nation), Johan Jacobs (Movistar) and Mauro Schmid (Qhubeka Assos).