PREVIEW | Tour de Romandie 2025 stage 4 - Remco Evenepoel vs João Almeida on the brutal queen stage

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 4.

The queen stage, without a doubt. There will be 4100 meters of climbing packed in a mere 128 kilometers. It's a day in the valley and climbs around Sion where the stage starts. Right off the start 14.5 kilometers at 7%, followed by 3.8Km at 5.8%.

Then after some riding on flat roads the riders will find a second combination of climbs that will further fatigue the riders in the race: 11.5Km at 6.8% and 5.8Km at 5.1%, the last of which ending with 44 kilometers to go. There will be a downhill run-in to the final climb, which means fighting for positioning will definitely take place.

The four categorized climbs will warm things up, but without a doubt it's in the mythical ascent to Thyon 2000 (20.2 kilometers at 7%) that the stage (and race perhaps) will be decided. The climb is long, it is steep, it features altitude and it is quite consistent. There is simply nowhere to hide, and it will be one of the major climbing tests of the season.

*** João Almeida, Lenny Martínez
** Carlos Rodríguez, Remco Evenepoel
* Jay Vine, Lennert van Eetvelt, Aleksandr Vlasov, David Gaudu, Oscar Onley, Alex Baudin, Pablo Castrillo, Javier Romo, Harold Tejada, Eddie Dunbar

Pick: João Almeida

How: With the consistency and climbing ability Almeida has been showing recently, I expect a great performance from him in the mountains and a final climb such as this is very well suited to his abilities.