Preview: Tour de Romandie. Before the Grand Tours, one final stage-race to complete the spring calendar

With the end of the spring classics comes a different period in the season. Between the classics and the Grand Tours, we find the Tour de Romandie which is the final World Tour race of a heavy April month.

The race is set to take the peloton through six stages within the French portion of Switzerland.

The race starts off with a fast 5.3 kilometer long prologue in Lausanne, before moving on to a set of hilly stages on the second, third and fourth day. Stage one sees an explosive hilltop finish in Romont where there will be crucial bonus seconds available, aswell as the favourites revealing themselves, whilst stages two and three both see hilly routes that can suit many different types of riders and see different scenarios towards a possible victory. 

The crucial days for the overall classification are the last two. The first of which will be a mountainous stage in the Swiss Alps, with over 400 meters of climbing that sees a final ascent of 28 kilometers, but is split into several sections, being a very inconsistent ascent. Whilst the final day, starting in the World Cycling Center and finishing in Villars, will be a rare mountain time-trial which has the potential to be the most important stage with it's final 10 kilometer ascent at 8%.

CyclingUpTodate prediction:

**** Geraint Thomas, Aleksandr Vlasov

*** Brandon McNulty, Ion Izagirre, Ben O'Connor

** Michael Woods, Juan Ayuso, Sergio Higuita, Rohan Dennis

* Ethan Hayter, Thibaut Pinot, Damiano Caruso, Marc Hirschi, Patrick Bevin

You will be able to keep up with the Tour de Romandie here on CyclingUpToDate as we bring you race reports and interviews on a daily basis.