PREVIEW | Tour de Romandie 2025 stage 3 - Hilltop finish can create GC differences

The Tour de Romandie will be the final stage-race of the spring period, and the last before the Giro d'Italia. The Swiss race every year attracts some of the best stage-racers in the world for it's climbing and time-trial tests, and this year will be no exception. We preview stage 3.

Stage 3 is perhaps the easiest non time-trial stage of the race, but it will still be a potential day for differences. All day long the riders go up and down, but without a meaningful ascent. An ideal day for a breakaway almost, it will be hard to organize a strong chase on such terrain.

With 40 kilometers to go will end the Col de Mollendruz which is over 14 kilometers at 3.5%, a rolling climb but one where attacks can come both in breakaway or peloton, but it can also do quite a lot of damage.

But then they climb up to the line in Cossonay which will be 2.2 kilometers at 5.7%, not a very tough climb, but one that will see a mix of the "sprinters", puncheurs and climbers come together for a likely sprint finish.

If a breakaway doesn't succeed in the day - this being a possibility - then we should see a sprint finish to decide the stage. Not the most brutal stage but there are a lot of small climbs spread throughout the day, but ultimately the run-up to Cossonay favours a chase and the final hilltop will be raced very fast. The GC riders will be fighting for the stage win and seconds, but a few more can be in the battle.

*** Remco Evenepoel, Oscar Onley, Clément Champoussin
** Matthew Brennan, Lenny Martínez, Aurélien Paret-Peintre
* William Lecerf Junior, Lennert van Eetvelt, Harold Tejada, Eddie Dunbar, João Almeida, Ivo Oliveira, Carlos Rodríguez, Aleksandr Vlasov

Pick: Remco Evenepoel

How: Sprint finish between the climbers and some puncheurs.