Giro d’Italia and Tour de France contenders set for Tour de Romandie

Tuesday marks the start of the final WorldTour stage race before the Giro d’Italia (May 9-31), the 69th Tour de Romandie in Switzerland. A little too close to the Giro for some pink jersey contenders, there are three of the four main Tour de France favourites in the field.

The six stages of the Tour de Romandie are bookended by time trials: a 19.2-km team time trial with a lump near its end on Tuesday and a similarly-profiled 17.3-km individual chrono on the concluding day. In between are four mountainous stages, but only one with a summit finish, Stage 5, which ends on the Cat. 1 climb to Champex-Lac after three other Cat. 1’s. It will be a fine King of the Mountains battle, but without reigning KOM Johann Tschopp, who retired.

The podium over the last two editions has been exactly the same: Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) the winner, Simon Špilak (Slovenia/Katusha) runner-up and Rui Costa (Portugal/Lampre) third. All three men will line up at Vallée de Joux on Tuesday. Froome has been plagued by sickness and crashes since his impressive Ruta del Sol victory in February.

Froome’s Tour de France rivals Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) are in the mix. After his Tirreno-Adriatico victory, Quintana might be a little disappointed at his fourth spot in the Vuelta Pais Vasco. He recently finished the two Belgian Ardennes Classics. Nibali has struggled to find form this season, but has been on the attack in the Ardennes Classics and placed 13th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Of all the Giro d’Italia contenders, Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/Etixx-QuickStep) is the only heavy to come to the Tour of Romandie, Richie Porte (Australia/Sky) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy/Ag2r) having recently clashed in the Giro del Trentino, Fabio Aru (Italy/Astana) out with illness and Alberto Contador (Spain/Tinkoff-Saxo) apparently taking April off. Uran was third in Tirreno-Adriatico and fourth in the Volta a Catalunya.

The French hopefuls for their home tour are in Switzerland as well. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) has been in the top-10 of the last three stage races he has contested. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) has been very ordinary in 2015 except for winning the 84th Critérium International in March. His teammate Romain Bardet has had a decent build up so far, and came 6th in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Svein Tuft is in the Orica-GreenEdge line-up as the Australian squad hones its team time trial game for the opening day of the Giro. Ryder Hesjedal has been improving as the season progresses. His most recent placing was 14th in the Giro del Trentino.