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Men’s Tour de Romandie 2025 preview: Route, favourites, how to watch and start list
The Tour de Romandie is a staple for Tour de France preparations, with past winners including Tour champions Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans. The 2025 men’s edition starts on Tuesday 29th April and runs until Sunday 4th May.
Taking the riders through the French-speaking Romandy region in the west of Switzerland, which includes the cantons of Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud as well as parts of Bern, Fribourg and Valais, there is usually a healthy amount of hard climbing and good time-trial action for the GC specialists to sink their teeth into.
The 2025 parcours will feature a heavy amount of time-trialling with both a prologue and a time-trial in Geneva on Stage 5. There’s just one summit finish this year, with the climb to Thyon 2000 on Stage 4. Favourites for the 2025 race include Belgian superstar Remo Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar’s loyal lieutenant João Almeida and the reigning champion Carlos Rodríguez of Ineos Grenadiers.
Tour de Romandie 2025 key information
- Dates: Tuesday 29th April-Sunday 4th May
- Start: Saint Imier, Switzerland
- Finish: Geneva, Switzerland
- Stages: Six (prologue + five ‘stages’)
- Television coverage: TNT Sports, Discovery+, Eurosport, FloBikes
- Most wins: Stephen Roche (three)
- 2024 winner: Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers)
Tour de Romandie 2025 route
Tour de Romandie 2025: stage by stage preview
Prologue: Tuesday 23rd April, Saint-Imier – Saint-Imier, 3.44km
With a prologue just over the 3km marker, the opening day of racing in Switzerland will be short and sweet. So short that most riders will complete the course within the length of most commercial pop songs. That said, there will be plenty of corners and road furniture that could take the riders out of their rhythm.
Stage 1: Wednesday 30th April, Münchenstein – Fribourg, 194.4km
The first road stage of the Tour de Romandie starts in the outskirts of Basel, the host city of next month’s Eurovision Song Contest. After the roll-out, the route skirts down through the region, moving towards Lake Neuchâtel. The arrival in Fribourg is a little different to normal. This year, the town, which sits on the eastern frontier of Romandy, will be slightly uphill, suiting the hardy sprinters.
Stage 2: Thursday 1st May, La Grande Béroche – La Grande Béroche, 157.0km
From the banks of the aforementioned Lake Neuchâtel, the looped stage on day three offers a heavy day of climbing. The 1,000m altitude ceiling is crossed on three occasions, before a fairly flat run to the line in La Grande Béroche.
Stage 3: Friday 2nd May, Cossonay – Cossonay, 183.1km
The village of Cossonay hosts yet another looped stage the following day. It’ll provide another chance for a breakaway or a reduced sprint once the race returns to Cossonay after 183km of racing.
Stage 4: Saturday 3rd May, Sion – Thyon 2000, 127.4km
The Swiss Alps properly arrive on Stage 4 on a tough Toblerone-like profile. The climbs to Anzère and Nax will act as softeners ahead of the final test to Thyon 2000 (20.8km at 7.6%). The climb is a drag, at just over 20km in length, meaning that the GC should receive a proper shake-up once the riders cross the snow-coated summit. Adam Yates won atop the Thyon 2000 in 2023, while in 2021 Michael Woods claimed the stage after Geraint Thomas crashed on the final corner due to torrid weather conditions.
Stage 5: Sunday 4th May, Geneva – Geneva, ITT, 17.1km
The final stage offers the week’s second time-trial. This one’s a little longer at 17km. It’s also in a more grand location: Geneva. The city of human rights, the Red Cross and overpriced coffees will be at the heart of this TT, with a city centre spaghetti-shaped circuit to open and close affairs on the lakeside. There’s a brief drag up to Cologny, so the GC riders have extra impetus to go for it.
Tour de Romandie 2025 favourites
Remco Evenepoel will start as the undisputed favourite for this year’s Tour de Romandie. The Belgian will relish the chance to show off the rainbow jersey on two occasions during the prologue and Stage 5’s time-trial around Geneva. After his big miss at Liège-Bastogne-Lège at the weekend though, the Soudal-QuickStep leader may appear more beatable than we’ve become accustomed to.
João Almeida will be hoping to carry his early season form through to upset former teammate Evenepoel. He’ll be supported by a strong team, with Jay Vine as a capable second card to play in the mountains. The diesel-friendly finish to Thyom 2000 and two time-trials should favour their Portuguese leader in his quest for another WorldTour stage race victory in his build-up to the Tour de France.
Elsewhere, reigning champion Carlos Rodríguez will be back to try and defend his title on behalf of Ineos Grenadiers. Sasha Vlasov will lead Red Bull’s hopes after a second-place finish last year here. Looking deeper down the start list, David Gaudu stands out, as does Lennert Van Eetvelt of Lotto, who will be hoping to show himself at the front of affairs after winning the UAE Tour in 2024.
Cyclist’s ratings
- ★★★★★: João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep)
- ★★★★: Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers)
- ★★★: Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates XRG)
- ★★: , Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers)
- ★: Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Iván Romeo (Movistar), Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana)
Tour de Romandie 2025: live TV and streaming guide
The Tour de Romandie will be broadcast live on TNT Sports throughout the week in the UK and Ireland. The channel will switch throughout the week, with the Prologue, Stage 1, 3, and 5 scheduled for TNT Sports, Stage 2 on TNT Sports 2 and Stage 4 on TNT Sports 4 on Saturday. For coverage without ad breaks, tune in through Discovery+. Elsewhere, fans in the US and Canada will be able to stream the action on FloBikes.
If the race isn’t being broadcast in your country or you are travelling abroad, a VPN will allow you to hide your device’s location to access content that is normally geo-blocked. One such VPN provider is ExpressVPN, which is well reviewed, helps users to find free to watch cycling, and costs start from around £5 per month.
- Read more: How to watch cycling for less in the UK
- Read more: Which countries can watch cycling for free in 2025?
TV and streaming schedule below is listed in BST time and subject to change by broadcasters.
Prologue: Tuesday 29th April
TNT Sports 1: 14:30-17:00
Discovery+: 14:30-16:45
Stage 1: Wednesday 30th April
TNT Sports 1: 14:30-17:00
Discovery+: 14:30-16:45
Stage 2: Thursday 1st May
TNT Sports 2: 14:30-17:00
Discovery+: 14:30-16:50
Stage 3: Friday 2nd May
TNT Sports 1: 14:30-17:00
Discovery+: 14:30-16:45
Stage 4: Saturday 3rd May
TNT Sports 4: 13:00-15:30
Discovery+: 13:00-15:15
Stage 5: Sunday 4th May
TNT Sports 1: 13:00-15:30
Discovery+: 13:00-15:15
Tour de Romandie 2025 start list
Data powered by FirstCycling.com
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