If there is such a thing as a home advantage in cycling, the BMC Racing team plans to capitalise on that by naming three Swiss riders to lead the squad for next week’s Tour de Romandie.
2004 stage winner Alex Moos will be one of the trio, and can draw on his past experience in the mountainous race. Tour de Suisse stage victor Steve Morabito will aim to add to his palmares, while Mathias Frank has also won on home soil, netting a stage of the GP Tell three years ago.
“I think Frank and Morabito are in good shape and Moos is coming out of the Giro del Trentino, so we can surely count on those guys,” said BMC Racing Team Director Sportif John Lelangue.
They will be backed by fellow Swiss riders Michael Schär, Danilo Wyss and Simon Zahner, as well as the American duo Jeff Louder and Jackson Stewart.
The six day ProTour event commences on Tuesday with a 4.3 kilometre prologue in Porrentruy. Two road stages follow, a 175.6 kilometre leg from Porrentruy to Fleurier and a 171.8 kilometre race around Fribourg, and then a 23.4 kilometre time trial based in and around Moudon.
The race concludes with mountain stages to Chatel (157.9km) and Sion (121.8km), where the final general classification will be fought out.
The Tour de Romandie will be used by some riders to prepare for the upcoming Giro d’Italia. It offers participants the chance to test both their strength against the clock and also their climbing condition, while the six days of racing can act as a good final tune-up.