Six days of racing, divided up with Swiss precision: 2 time trials, 2 undulating stages, 2 mountain-top finishes. This is the demanding program of the 77th edition of the Tour de Romandie.
The race kicked off with a prologue that was short on kilometers but full of curves. Roger Adria mastered the 2.3 kilometers through Payerne as the fastest rider from BORA - hansgrohe. He was half a second faster than Aleks Vlasov, who, together with Jai Hindley, is going into the stage race as the team's GC leader.
Stage 1 promised a hilly day, which ended flat in Fribourg, but did not necessarily have to be a sprint decision. Almost all the teams in the peloton arrived without a clear sprinter. That's why BORA - hansgrohe put the peloton under pressure.
Rolf Aldag:
“We wanted to have a rider in the breakaway because the course was not clearly designed for a sprint. Gampi wanted to try, and he did. When the group was caught, Gampi attacked again. He realized that he still had the momentum and just went for it. That was strong!”
The two leaders Aleks Vlasov and Jai Hindley went into the first mountain-top finish on Thursday with a good starting position in the overall standings. With only a few seconds separating them, all the favorites are close together. The final climb to Salvan was set to sort the classification.
Once again, BORA - hansgrohe started the stage in attack mode and placed a rider in the breakaway with Roger Adria. He was only caught in the last 3km by the chasing group - where the team was very present with Florian Lipowitz, Jai Hindley and Aleks Vlasov. Florian Lipowitz, who has just extended his contract with BORA - hansgrohe, went on a final attack and finished the day in 4th place. Aleks Vlasov followed in 6th place and jumped up to 8th place in the overall standings.
At the halfway point, BORA - hansgrohe leads the team classification of the WorldTour-race.
Rolf Aldag's interim conclusion:
“We're on target, but it's a surprising Tour de Romandie. Even after the first mountain-top finish, it's still a game of seconds. At the moment it looks like it won't be the mountains that decide the Tour, but the time trial and bonification seconds. Tomorrow's time trial is demanding and I assume that there will be a preliminary decision. We'll make sure that we put everything on the road tomorrow.”