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Hi boys and gals, Tour de Romandie starts, one of my favourite tours where I never have chances! Let's have a look at the favourites.

Maillot jaune:

*** Franck Souris
** Stoffel van der Woodsen, Eivind Bjerke
* Climbers

It's not hilly enough to ensure a climber the win, so I guess first up are Hubers and next the Leupolds.

Points classement:

*** Aaron Moses
** Zachary Soneau
* Other strong classics

I guess this could become very interesting. The good time trialists (van der Woodsen and Bjerke) don't have sprint, so they won't compete for this one though will be good on the two days against the clock. I guess Moses and Soneau are the strongest individual riders here, though it will be hard for Soneau because he doesn't have a team. Therefore Moses my favourite here.

Climbers' classement:

*** Breakaway riders with 60+ mountain
** Climbers
* More breakaway riders

No real mountain finishes, this one is definitely for the breakaways.

Young riders' classement:

*** Maxime Pirouac
** Zachary Soneau
* Probably no one else

I don't think a TT-classic rider with 70 mountain is already good enough since there are surely some mountains where he will be dropped. So it's between those two.

Perhaps Xavi Ximénez with chances for yellow too ... and perhaps it will be a nice fight for this 3-4 Teams.

Before i saw the lineup of all teams i had a dream with Mick Jagger for white ... but now i see really no chance, too much stronger hill and classicriders in the peloton to hold him away after the last mountains. grrr.

But ok lets fight for a stagewin or something else ...

And what about Pavel Grzymkowiak for points classement ^^

Sprint value is top, but 71 mountain should be too weak to have a chance to make enough points on stage 4 and 5.

bergwerk cycling wrote:Perhaps Xavi Ximénez with chances for yellow too ... and perhaps it will be a nice fight for this 3-4 Teams.

XAVI a Lusche ... forget him .-)

sylvainmeteo wrote:You could keep it until the TT I think, it's really possible

Yes, is possible. And I guess it could really work. But I need to be on top of my form to do that.

For the stage today: Really thought the climbers are gone. Then, they go for red instead of stage and I had a little hope left. Gone in the breakaway to save Wintersted as 2nd helper for Soneau, in the end didn't work. After the horror combo 9-10-9 or something like that it was, the GC-favourites attack. If they keep pushing, they are gone. Enough said. Fortunately for Delion and Soneau who were left without an attack they could come back. Castaing and Wollfinger with good tempo, later others join and it went to be a real close finish to catch the group. Yesterday Delion won so I hoped Celtic would attack today and let me equalize, in fact he did, but it's okay I guess, we both were able to take a stage so far. Looking forward for tomorrow, climbers day!

Stoffel!!!

Congrats! Good tour, enjoyed riding, always enjoying when there's a chance to win stuff of course.

Looking at the favo-check, I think the tour belonged to what it offered. Souris doesn't gain the time needed on stage 4 when his climber helper attacked on the 2nd 8% instead of pulling him away from the classics. Stage 5, Bjerke with a decent attack though kamikaze like, but I liked it, action always good. And in the end, 65 reg needs to attack - always. I was hoping to make some time on the last stage, it wasn't enough to hold the gap to the strong time trialists. A strong SM Team then takes the victory, deserved you can say. Looking forward for more tours against you guys, very friendly peloton. Top!