Soudal-QuickStep are opting for a low-key approach in this year's Tour de Romandie despite fielding Remco Evenepoel in the Swiss WorldTour stage race, which starts this Tuesday in the mountain village of Saint-Imier with a 3.4km prologue time trial.
The Belgian rider confirmed last month he would be taking part in the six-day stage race for the first time since 2019, as part of his revised build-up for the summer following his off-season training crash and late start to the 2025 season.
Romandie will be Evenepoel's first stage race since the Tour of Britain last year. In his previous participation in Romandie back in 2019, when he was still finding his feet as a very young pro, he finished 76th overall.
Other challengers for Romandie include defending champion Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and 2022 winner Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and France's up-and-coming climber Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious).
Other notable figures include talented 19-year-old British sprinter Matthew Brennan (Vimsa-Lease a Bike), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) who won Romandie back in 2021, Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ), a winner of three stages in one of his top home country events, and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
After the usual broad variety of rolling stages for the first four days, the major ascent to the Mount Thion summit finish on stage 5 is certain to see the first important GC selection in this year's Tour de Romandie. But the final 17.1 kilometre time trial through Geneva next Sunday May 4 will likely be the deciding factor in the overall outcome.
As a double World Time Trial Champion, on paper the ever-ambitious Evenepoel's options look to be very good in a race bookended by time trials, with the second a hilly race against the clock through the city of Geneva.
However the team notably played down their GC options, saying they were only looking for stage wins and would take any other targets on the day-by-day.
“Romandie is one of the most important stage races of the spring and we’d like to get some good results there before moving our attention to the Giro d’Italia," said Soudal Quick-Step sports director Dries Devenyns.
"Remco will be the team’s leader, and he’ll have at his side a strong and motivated squad to support his comeback. The parcours comes with plenty of challenges, and the weather could also play a part, so it will be a hard week, but we believe in ourselves. We would like to win a stage there, but the main plan is to take it one day at a time and see how things go."
Evenepoel began his return to racing with a spectacular sprint victory against Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) in Brabantse Pijl and he was also a key player in Amstel Gold, where he finished third.
Speaking after a below-expectations performance at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he finished 59th, Evenepoel said "I realize that I have to take it day by day. If it's a good one, I have to take advantage of it. If it's a bad one, I just have to accept that. Now I have to stay calm and keep working."
