Will we have an Evenepoel-Vingegaard battle in April? Olympic Champion confirmed as Tour de Romandie headliner

Remco Evenepoel will race the 2025 Tour de Romandie, this has been confirmed by the race organizers themselves on social media. The Belgian is currently recovering from a massive crash that has taken months off his preparation in December; and besides the Ardennes classics the Olympic Champion will also do a stage-race this month where he may even face Jonas Vingegaard.

Evenepoel sustained plenty injuries and needed over a month completely off the bike, in a key moment of the year where he was preparing for the 2025 season. The time spent away from the road itself amounted to almost two months, and so understandably he starts his season two months after most of his rivals. At the time being, the Soudal - Quick-Step rider is scheduled to start his season at the Brabantse Pijl within two weeks and will follow that up with the Ardennes classics.

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It had been rumoured earlier in the spring that the Tour de Romandie could be added to his schedule, as not doing so would mean that likely his first stage-race of the year would come in June, only weeks away from the Tour de France where he will aim for the overall classification. In an effort to test his form but also to look for progression, the Belgian will be in Switzerland later this month where he will be a headliner.

A big question that lies however is if he will face Jonas Vingegaard, who similarly crashed at Paris-Nice, has had to remove that race and the Volta a Catalunya from the calendar, and is looking for alternatives to race before the month of May where Visma will go on an altitude camp to begin specific preparation towards the Tour de France.

This would largely depend on his form by that time however, as team DS Grischa Niermann has said the following regarding the possibility of the Dane making the trip to Switzerland as well: “We are looking into that. But we are not going to send Jonas to a race at half strength. If he races, it is to compete for the win and he must therefore be 100% fit.”

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