As the 2025 Tour de Romandie approaches, all eyes are on Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian star arrives in scintillating form after dominating the Ardennes classics and will headline a stacked start list in what promises to be one of the most competitive editions of the race in recent years. With two time trials on the route, Evenepoel is a clear favourite — but he won’t have it easy.
Jonas Vingegaard might have recently announced that he will skip all races leading up to the Critérium du Dauphiné as part of his build-up to the Tour de France. Nevertheless, even without the Danish champion, the Swiss stage race boasts an impressive line-up, with three key contenders standing in Evenepoel's way: João Almeida, Carlos Rodríguez, and Aleksandr Vlasov.
Joao Almeida
The Portuguese rider appears to be Evenepoel’s most serious challenger. While his time trialling may not be as sharp as in the past - largely due to his focus on improving in the high mountains - he remains a formidable rider against the clock, as he showed with a dominant win at the recent Itzulia Basque Country.
Almeida took the overall win at the 2025 Itzulia Basque Country
Almeida's 2025 season has been consistently strong, with podium finishes in the Algarve and Valencia, a sixth-place in Paris–Nice, and that overall victory in the Basque Country. He’s expected to be in even better form by the time the Tour de Romandie starts, especially with the Tour de Suisse also on his calendar before the Tour de France.
Carlos Rodriguez
As the defending champion, Rodríguez naturally comes into the race as one of the top favourites. Time trials aren’t his speciality, so he’ll need to limit his losses in the prologue and other timed stages. Still, the race profile offers plenty of tough terrain, which suits his aggressive style.
Carlos Rodriguez's win in Romandie last year is still the INEOS Grenadiers' most recent GC triumph
Rodríguez has had a quiet season so far. After placing sixth in Valencia, he was forced to abandon the UAE Tour - his only other race to date in 2025. As a result, his current form remains something of a mystery, but his past performance in Romandie proves he's capable of delivering when it counts.
Aleksandr Vlasov
The Russian finished runner-up to Rodríguez last year and claimed overall victory in Romandie back in 2022. His 2025 season hasn’t been particularly impressive, with underwhelming results in Valencia, Paris–Nice, and the Basque Country. That said, he's likely using these races to build form ahead of a key support role for Primož Roglič at the Tour de France.
Vlasov is often there or thereabouts in these one-week stage races
Vlasov is a strong time trialist and usually performs well in week-long stage races. If he can stay close in the mountains, he has the potential to challenge for the overall win once again.
J-4 / La température monte pour le #TDR2025! Le peloton du WorldTour @UCI_WWT va se croire en été! #tdr #tdrnonstop pic.twitter.com/j5JJh5Zjkz
— Tour de Romandie (@TourDeRomandie) April 25, 2025
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
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