The route of the 2012 Tour de Romandie was unveiled at a press conference in Payerne, Switzerland, today by race director Richard Chassot. The six day race round the French-speaking part of Switzerland, will take place between April 24th and 29th of next year.
Since the Tour de Romandie is part of the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour, and so the eighteen ProTeams will all be taking part; Chassot also annonced that the Professional Continental Europcar team, of last year’s Tour de France hero Thomas Voeckler, will also be invited, with the possibility of twentieth team to be decided at a later date.
The race will, as usual, begin with a prologue time trial, this year in the city of Lausanne, with the first road stage running between Morges, on the shores of Lake Geneva, and La Chaux-de-Fonds. Stage two will see a first for the race, as it starts across the border in France, in the Montbéliard, before crossing back into Switzerland to finish in Moutier, in the Bernese Jura.
Stage three will start in La Neuveville, to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the town, and finish in Charmey, before the big mountain stage on Saturday, April 28th between Bulle and Sion. The race will finish with a tough individual time trial in Crans-Montana.
The 2011 edition was won by Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), taking the lead in the penultimate day’s time trial, on his way to becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France.
Tour de Romandie 2012 stages
April 24th: prologue – Lausanne ITT
April 25th: stage 1 – Morges to La Chaux-de-Fonds
April 26th: stage 2 – Montbéliard (France) to Moutier
April 27th: stage 3 – La Neuveville to Charmey
April 28th: stage 4 – Bulle to Sion
April 29th: stage 5 – Crans-Montana ITT