Lotto Soudal have announced their line-up for the Tour de Romandie.

The 70th edition of the Tour de Romandie is scheduled from 26 April 2016 till 1 May 2016. This stage race takes the riders in six days through the beautiful but hard French speaking part of Switzerland. This race, which is part of the WorldTour, will be a perfect preparation for the Giro d’Italia because of the many mountains on the route.

Lotto Soudal will participate with among others Bart De Clercq, Maxime Monfort, Rafael Valls and Louis Vervaeke. Sports director Marc Wauters and Rafael Valls already look forward to the race.

Wauters said: “This race will be a good test for the condition. A few of our riders did a training week in the mountains, it will depend on how well they will be recovered. Therefore we won’t determine a GC leader beforehand. Maxime Monfort, Rafael Valls, Bart De Clercq and Louis Vervaeke can aim for a good position on GC if they feel good. The other four riders can attack or join a break and try to win a stage. Everyone will have his chance, the riders already showed this season that they’re in a good shape. A lot of great riders participate in this race but in my opinion there are several opportunities for us next week.

“It’s a very nice race in a beautiful country and the course is very varied. The riders who want to aim for a good GC need to be attentive in the time trials and in the mountain stages. In the stages that are rather flat we have someone like Tosh Van der Sande who can ride a decent sprint. Also Thomas De Gendt can obtain nice results when he has a good day. A few tough stages lie ahead of us, but we start with a strong team. I really look forward to it.”

Rafael Valls is one of the eight riders who’ll defend the Lotto Soudal colours next week. The Spanish climber abandoned the Volta a Catalunya during the fourth stage due to a severe cold which he incurred just before Tirreno-Adriatico.

“I caught a cold before Tirreno-Adriatico," he said. "During this Italian stage race I started to take antibiotics. I was able to finish the race, but at the end I was really tired. Six days later I participated in the Volta a Catalunya and there it became clear that I hadn’t completely recovered. Together with the team I decided to abandon the race and take the rest I needed. I came to this team with the goal to get good results in the one-week stage races, unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that in Tirreno and Catalunya. Nevertheless, the team supported me really well in this hard period and I want to thank them for their confidence.

“The past two weeks I was able to train well and especially during the past week I had the feeling that I’m ready to race again. The prologue and the time trial contain a climb, that’s an advantage for me. It won’t be a course for the real TT specialists. The second and fourth stage are both mountain stages with an uphill finish, these will be very important stages with the GC in mind. It will be a hard race with riders such as Froome and Quintana participating but I am looking forward to it!”

Roster Lotto Soudal: 

Sander Armée, Bart De Clercq, Thomas De Gendt, Tomasz Marczynski, Maxime Monfort, Rafael Valls, Tosh Van der Sande and Louis Vervaeke.