The Tour de Romandie has usually kicked off with a prologue but this year the organizers have changed the script. To strengthen its status as a key preparation race for the Tour de France, the opening stage will now be a team time trial and several teams regard the opening stage as a key test for the TTT at French grand tour. At the same time, it is an important stage for the GC in the Swiss race and even though time gaps in a short TTT are often small, the main contenders will all be eager to get the race off to a good start.

 

The course

The Tour de Romandie is one of the few WorldTour stage races that has usually started with a prologue which has often been a very short and technical affair suited to the really explosive riders. In 2013, they deviated from the pattern by designing a rare mountain prologue and this year they have gone one step further by completely skipping the traditional opener.

 

The organizers have probably been inspired by the inclusion of a very important team time trial in the Tour de France and most teams are keen to test their skills in the collective discipline on every possible occasion before the big event in July. Hence, they have decided to start their race with a TTT that will determine the first leader of the race.

 

The 19.2km route brings the riders from Le Sentier to Juraparc and is mainly one for the real specialists. After having travelled in a southwesterly direction, the riders will turn left to get onto the main road that will bring them in a northeasterly direction in flat terrain alongside the shores of the Lac de Joux. There are no topographical or technical challenges and the riders will reach high speeds in this very fast section of the course that is all about power.

 

However, it will be important to save some energy for the final part of the race. With 3km to go, the riders hit the small climb Col du Mont d’Orzeires whose 2.2km with an average gradient of 2.5% will test the cohesiveness of the teams and will see the weaker riders get distanced. The top comes with 750m to go and the final part is all descending at a gradient of 4.3% along a completely straight road.

 

The Tour de Romandie last had a team time trial in 2009 when the collective test came on the third day. Back then, Team Columbia – HTC beat Caisse d’Epargne and Team Saxo Bank on the 14.8km course in Yverdon-les-Bains to put Frantisek Rabon in the leader’s jersey.

 

 

The weather

The Tour de Romandie is infamously known for its rainy conditions and it seems that the riders won’t be spared the wet conditions later in the race. However, they are likely to get the race off to a nice start. Lots of rain will be falling during the night but by the time the riders wake up, it should be dry and cloudy. During the end of the team time trial, the sun is even likely to come out to make it a beautiful start to the race. However, it will be pretty cold, with a maximum temperature of just 8 degrees.

 

There will be a moderate wind from a northwesterly direction which means that the riders will have a crosswind for almost the entire stage. Luckily it seems that it will be pretty constant throughout the stage, meaning that all teams should have similar conditions.

 

The favourites

The prologue in the Tour de Romandie has often been a very short affair and the time gaps have usually been very small. This year the opening stage may be quite a bit longer but history shows that time differences in team time trials of this distance are never massive. These tests are usually decided by seconds and with a tough mountain stage and a time trial still to come, it will mainly be important to get the race off to a good start from a psychological point of view before the next three stages which are mainly about survival for the GC riders.

 

However, the stage is still one of the big highlights for many teams. One-week WorldTour stage races are rarely won by big time gaps and so it may have an impact on the final GC but the main focus will be on the fact that the stage will serve as a dress rehearsal for the team time trial at the Tour de France. Hence, many teams have selected teams that are very similar to the ones that will be at the start in July later this year and they will be keen to get their automatisms right already now.

 

There may be a small climb in the end but it is not very steep and as the main part of the stage is made up of a long, flat road, this is a stage for the teams that really specialize in this discipline. Even though there will not be any flat road stages in this race, it will be important for the teams to have some really powerful riders who can help them set a fast pace in this stage which is all about power.

 

For a mountainous race like this, however, it makes no sense to gather a team of time trial specialists and so all rosters contain a few climbers that won’t be able to make much of a contribution. A couple of teams, however, have a decent amount of firepower and they will battle it out for the win in what seems to be a very open and unpredictable battle.

 

Orica-GreenEDGE specialize in this discipline and whenever the Australian team lines up in a team time trial, it is a big goal. They always put huge emphasis on the TTTs and often select teams based on these stages. That has clearly been a very important part of their selection strategy for the Tour de Romandie too as Sam Bewley, Michael Hepburn, Brett Lancaster and Svein Tuft will all be at the start in Switzerland. None of them will be able to do much in the rest of the race and their main goal is to win the opening stage.

 

Tuft, Lancaster and Hepbutn have all been part of many of their TTT successes and they know how to work together in these tests. Bewley will be a valuable addition too while riders like Michael Albasini and Simon Gerrans should be able to make a solid contribution despite not being TT specialists. The Swiss is in outstanding conditions at the moment while Gerrans was part of the team that won the TTT at the 2013 Tour de France. Climbers Simon Yates and Ivan Santaromita will suffer a bit more but with four strong riders, the team could very well take another team time trial win on the opening day in Romandie.

 

The main challenge for the team will be to tackle the final climb as their powerhouses are not great climbers. It is not too steep though and pretty similar to the ascents at last year’s Worlds where they finished second. On the flats, they should be the strongest team and if they can gauge their effort, they must be the favourites to win.

 

BMC are the reigning world champions in the discipline and even though they only have one rider who was part of the gold-medal winning ride, on their roster for this race, they have a very strong team for this test. Hour Record holder Rohan Dennis was one of the driving forces on the glorious day in Ponferrada and he will again be the key rider for the team in this race. He is joined by two riders who finished on the podium at the U23 world time trial championships as Stefan Küng and Campbell Flakemore both feature on the roster. While Küng has already proved his potential by taking second behind Bradley Wiggins in the De Panne TT, Flakemore is getting back into form after he broke his collarbone at the Tour Down Under.

 

To the three youngsters, one can add Damiano Caruso who has often helped Cannondale to do well in team time trials and knows how to well in these tests. Danilo Wyss is strong on the flats and only Amael Moinard, Darwin Atapuma and Manuel Senni won’t be able to make much of a contribution. With three strong time triallists at the helm including the impressive Dennis, BMC could very well turn out to be the strongest team in this stage.

 

Etixx-QuickStep are always among the strongest in the team time trials but for this race they clearly don’t have their best team for the opening stage. The roster is more geared towards the mountains and the Giro d’Italia and they will have a harder time than usual on the opening day.

 

However, they still have Tony Martin on the roster and in the past the powerful German has almost been able to win team time trials single-handedly. He is joined by Rigoberto Uran who has improved a lot in time trials and is now one of the very best in the business. In fact, the team considering selecting him for the 6-rider team for the World Championships which speaks volumes about the contribution he can make in these stages.

 

Pieter Serry and Maxime Bouet are both solid time triallists but the rest of the squad is made up of rider who don’t really excel in this discipline. On paper, that may be a bit too many climbers to win the stage but with Martin on the roster, no one can rule out that Etixx-QuickStep will get the race off to the perfect start.

 

Defending champion Chris Froome will be very eager to gain a few seconds on the likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana right from the start of the race and as usual he has a solid team to support him. For this race, however, he won’t have the strongest time triallists at his side and even though the team actually has several riders for the flats, only Geraint Thomas is a real specialist. Ian Stannard, Elia Viviani and Luke Rowe are strong riders but none of them are among the best in the TTs. Furthermore, Stannard and Rowe are just coming back from a small break and are unlikely to be at their best.

 

The rest of the team is mainly made up of Danny Pate who is no longer the time triallists he once was, and climbers Nicolas Roche and Peter Kennaugh. They should all be able to make a solid contribution but Froome and Thomas will have to do an awful lot of work. Sky are usually among the best in the team time trials but they rarely win any. That is unlikely to change tomorrow but they should definitely be among the best.

 

Astana is not known as team time trial specialists but two years ago they won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Espana. For this race, they have one of the strongest teams and they should have plenty of firepower for the opening test. Lieuwe Westra is a great time triallist and Vincenzo Nibali has improved a lot in time trials. Rein Taaramae and Andriy Grivko are also very strong in this discipline and even though Jakob Fuglsang is not the time triallist he once was, he should be able to make a solid contribution. Andrey Zeits is strong too and only Alessandro Vanotti and Michele Scarponi may suffer a bit in this test which makes the team very homogeneous.

 

However, Westra is coming back from illness and crashes and he missed most of the Ardennes classics. Hence, his condition is very uncertain and even though the team don’t have any really weak parts, they may lack the top end speed to win the stage.

 

Katusha was once known as a solid team for team time trials but in the last few years they have usually been among the ones that have had to limit their losses in the TTTs. For this opening stage, however, they have a very strong roster as they have selected the GC riders who are also pretty good time triallists while the light climbers Joaquim Rodriguez, Daniel Moreno and Giampaolo Caruso are all absent. Simon Spilak, Ilnur Zakarin and Sergei Chernetskii are all aiming for the GC in this race and they can both climb and time trial.

 

However, their biggest asset is former U23 world champion Anton Vorobyev who is getting stronger and stronger and won the 3 Days of West-Flanders prologue earlier this year. Maxim Belkov is also a very powerful rider for the flats and the team and the team seems to have lots of firepower for the opening stage. They may lack the experience to win the stage but they should be able to get there main riders’ GC campaigns off to a great start.

 

Very often Movistar go into a race with a team that doesn’t look perfectly suited to a team time trial but they are always among the best. In this race, they should again be able to do well as they can count on strong powerhouses like Jonathan Castroviejo and Andrey Amador. However, the latter is just coming back from an injury and so he is unlikely to be in his best condition.

 

Rory Sutherland and Imanol Erviti are also decent time triallists but the rest of the team is made up of climbers. Even though Nairo Quintana and Eros Capecchi can occasionally do well in TTs, it may be a bit too much to have that much dead weight. Nonetheless, they should be able to limit their losses well.

 

Finally, we will select a joker. For IAM, this race is a season highlight and they hope that Mathias Frank can finish on the podium. To support their captain fully, they have gathered a very strong team for the team time trial which should allow him to get the race off to a good start. In addition to the leader who has improved a lot in team time trials, Stef Clement and Matthias Brändle are both big specialists and Reto Hollenstein, Marcel Wyss and Larry Warbasse are usually strong too. This should provide the home team with lots of firepower for this opening stage and they are capable of creating a surprise.

 

CyclingQuotes’ stage winner pick: Orica-GreenEDGE

Other winner candidates: BMC, Etixx-QuickStep

Outsiders: Sky, Astana, Katusha, Movistar

Joker: IAM