1 wildcard and 4 World Tour teams say no - Tadej Pogacar leads the Tour de Romandie, but only 15 teams take to the start
Cycling
The Tour de Romandie starts next week on the 28th of April right after the end of the spring classics and brings a new tone to the cycling calendar. The stage-races take center place once again and Tadej Pogacar will be at the start. However, the Swiss race is going to have an extremely small peloton after several teams withdrew from it.
The race is taking place from the 28th of April to the 3rd of May and present six stages which have different formats, attracting different types of riders. It is a race with historical significance, having high-level winners throughout its long history and the same continuing to apply to modern times. Romandie, taking part in the French part of Switzerland, is one of the 'big 7' non-Grand Tour stage-races in the World Tour calendar, which brings it further reputation, and has attracted none other than the World Champion this year.
In a peloton of 18 World Tour teams then, the World Tour event will start with a total of 15 only - with a mere 105 riders at the start. A new UCI rule has allowed teams from 2026 onwards to skip one World Tour event of choice per year, and Romandie was the choice for many. Only four were allowed not to start and in this case they are Alpecin - Premier Tech, Decathlon CMA CGM, Lotto-Intermarché and Uno-X Mobility. It is not known if more teams applied to forfeit the race.
1 wildcard and no Q36.5
What is more odd is that the race organizers did not compensate for this lack of teams elsewhere. Tudor Pro Cycling Team, one of Switzerland's ProTeams, has received a wildcard. Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, who have Tom Pidcock and a World Tour-level team, was not invited - or did not want to take part in. And no other ProTeam level is going to participate in the race either. An odd situation taking into consideration the team's exposure and also availability of UCI points.
The race has been undergoing financial problems and failed to find a main sponsor for this year, underlining its financial problems which put the race at risk for future years. Despite this, there is a very strong list of riders at the start to fight for the overall classification with Tadej Pogacar facing Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe duo of Primoz Roglic and Florian Lipowitz; INEOS Grenadiers' Oscar Onley; Bahrain - Victorious' Lenny Martínez and Antonio Tiberi; and many more...
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Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- They only raced each other during the 2026 Tour, but here's a few metrics to look at. Stage 3 (Granollers to Les Angles): Pogačar won the stage, finishing 2 seconds ahead of Vingegaard (2nd). Del Toro finished 24 seconds behind Stage 6 (Pau to Gavarnie-Gedre / Col du Tourmalet): Pogačar won solo, Vingegaard finished 2nd (losing 2:38), and Del Toro finished 3rd (at +2:57, finishing 19 seconds behind Vingegaard). Here, Jonas Vingegaard outclimbed Isaac del Toro by 19 seconds on the mountain stageawp13-11-2026
- your clinging to the past. Jonas was dropped by del toro many times last year and jonas never managed a climbing numers del toro did in dauphine last year -entire year. Trend is also evident theres no discussion your living in the past, its beent he same with jonas for many years now and only developing, meanwhile del toro is rising and developing greatly. This is all obvious stuff and im not even a del toro fan. No point discussing numbers or this i suspect you dont watch much now but rather think its 2022 still cause this aint hard.miguel13-11-2026
- We can go through metrics if you like, Del Toro, who I do admire and support, is not on the same level as Jonas just yet. You will see that in early 2027 if they have any crossover races. I do hope they both race the Giro. You are correct though, Jonas is getting older and will not be able to hand on much longer. I see 2027 as a good year for him. Obviously behind Tadej though.awp13-11-2026
- What wins? Are you LA operating under a pseudonym?mij13-11-2026
- My point is this - Tadej, Remco, Seixas are all the outliers. Many riders don’t hit their peak until 28. It’s way too early to write him off. And the pogi slo guy that hates him - he’s also immature. Ayuso needs time.mij13-11-2026
- Then you need to use ur eyes or head if you have cause del toro already dropped jonas two times and beat him in tdf stages already this year.. Del toro climbed(dauphine) better numbers than jonas did all year too. So ur feelings and wishful thinking doesnt amtter del toro himself has already surpassed jonas infact just facts. Its also very evident for anyone objective that Jonas is declining alot, its just the truth and super obvious.miguel13-11-2026
- None of those victories stand, so there's that,wrsty13-11-2026
- No surprise there; it is British Sycling, yes, with an S
Rafionain-Glas12-11-2026 - I like Del Toro but he's not on the level of Jonas, by a large margin.awp12-11-2026
- There are only two people who will be competing with Tadej in 2027 and neither are Remco.awp12-11-2026
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