{"id":636961,"date":"2026-04-29T19:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/636961\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T19:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:30:10","slug":"tour-de-romandie-stage-2-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/636961\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de Romandie Stage 2 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Poga\u010dar train has arrived in Romandie \u2014 but it was not quite as dominant<\/a> as usual in stage one. That opens a few doors for the rest of the week, and Thursday’s stage is already a fine opportunity. Not high mountains \u2014 but Swiss hills. IDL Pro Cycling runs through the challengers.Stage 2 route \u2014 Tour de Romandie 2026\"ronde-van-romandie-2026-etappe-2\"\/<\/p>\n

Stage two covers 173.1 kilometres between Rue and Vucherens. The riders cross the finish line after 33.8 kilometres, then tackle a local loop of 46.5 kilometres three times. Total elevation: over 2,700 metres, with the road constantly rising and falling throughout the day.<\/p>\n

The only classified climb is the Vuillens (3.1 km at 5.4%), which is ascended three times. The final passage comes just 2.2 kilometres from the finish, meaning the climbers and punchers will again be the ones to watch. The final kilometre also rises after a short descent.<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 1:20 p.m.
Finish: around 5:15 p.m.<\/p>\n

Weather \u2014 Tour de Romandie stage 2<\/p>\n

The conditions are favourable again on Thursday \u2014 a very light breeze and a temperature of just under 20 degrees Celsius. Everything points to another good day’s racing.<\/p>\n

Stage 2 favourites \u2014 Tour de Romandie 2026When Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> is in the race, you’re not so much as pencilling him in as favourite, but rather using a sharpie. And this stage is no different. The world champion has not finished outside the top five this season, and was also the strongest climber in stage one. The question is whether UAE will want to control this one.<\/p>\n

If the Emirates squad choose to set pace, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) can also be a contender. The Frenchman was the only rider to follow Poga\u010dar throughout stage one and has been making a strong impression all season. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) also impressed, and has the explosive climber Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d as a teammate. Rogli\u010d overextended himself in stage one, though, and could not stay with the front group. And what about 21-year-old teammate Luke Tuckwell?<\/p>\n

At INEOS Grenadiers, the team must reorganise following Oscar Onley’s abandonment<\/a> \u2014 but Andrew August is a talent well suited to this kind of stage. These are the names you would expect to see at the Ardennes Classics, and this stage has a similar feel. Max Schachmann (Soudal Quick-Step) is another example.\"lenny-martinez\"\/If the favourites battle it out, J\u00f8rgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike) and the surprise package Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) have already caught the eye. This is also precisely the kind of stage that suits Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla). And can Dorian Godon<\/a> (INEOS Grenadiers) handle this parcours? He can certainly climb \u2014 but this might just be a little too much for him on consecutive days.<\/p>\n

XDS Astana have options with Sergio Higuita and Cl\u00e9ment Champoussin. For Champoussin in particular, a move from the breakaway is very much on the cards. A successful long-range attack is not out of the question on a stage like this \u2014 if Poga\u010dar is not interested in the win, the door could open for riders such as Marco Frigo (NSN), Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) or Warren Barguil (Picnic PostNL).<\/p>\n

The impressive Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek) should also be capable here, given his strong climbing performance on Wednesday. Keep an eye on Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), too \u2014 he could play a tactical game with Martinez. Others who were strong in stage one \u2014 Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step) and Carlos Rodr\u00edguez (INEOS Grenadiers) \u2014 may find there are not quite enough climbing kilometres here to suit them.<\/p>\n

IDL Pro Cycling Tour de Romandie stage 2 top picks<\/p>\n

Top favourite: Tadej Poga\u010dar (UAE Emirates-XRG)<\/p>\n

Outsiders: Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)<\/p>\n

Long shots: J\u00f8rgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike), Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Cl\u00e9ment Champoussin, Sergio Higuita (XDS Astana), Marco Frigo (NSN), Dorian Godon (INEOS Grenadiers), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Maximilian Schachmann (Soudal Quick-Step), Andrew August (INEOS Grenadiers)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Poga\u010dar train has arrived in Romandie \u2014 but it was not quite as dominant as usual in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,21615,82,1422,237283],"class_list":["post-636961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-previews","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-of-romandie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}