Tour de Romandie 2017 – Stage 5 preview

By David Hunter

Lausanne 19km ITT

The race ends with a challenging TT.

We have 19km of TT pain, with the opening 7.5km climbing at 4%. Within that, we have 800m at 8.6% and 3km at 5.7%. This is a very tough start. The rest of the course is mainly downhill, but it is technical, with lots of corners.

Weather

A nice day with very little wind. The weather will not impact the stage.

Contenders

Primoz Roglic – can history repeat itself? In the Basque Country, the Slovenian produced a stunning TT, beating all the big climbers. Unfortunately, he only managed to finish 5th on GC, but he is closer here. Porte is the rider he is aiming for, he currently sits 34 seconds behind the Aussie. Another big TT performance and he’ll take the stage and GC. It is going to be close.

Richie Porte – what a performance today. It was exactly as I expected, except that his big friend wasn’t with him! He needs to start this TT like a bomb, putting as much time as he can into Roglic on the climb. Then, he’ll try and hang on for dear life. He won’t win the stage, but can he take the GC?

Jonathan Castroviejo – he took a brilliant TT win in Algarve, right at the start of the season. The Spaniard continues to improve in this discipline and has a genuine chance of winning the stage and moving up into the top 10 overall. After finishing 7th in Tirreno, it really is starting to look like a brilliant year for him.

Ion Izagirre – will have been very disappointed with his performance today. He sits 3 seconds behind Roglic on GC, a man that beat him in the Pais Vasco TT. I expect a good performance from Izagirre, but not a winning one.

Bob Jungels – it’s been a while since we’ve seen a big TT performance by him. He is just about to head off to the Giro, I expect him to have a massive hit-out in this stage. On his day, he is capable of finishing in the top 5.

Alex Dowsett – was very close to winning the prologue, but the climb rules him out for this stage.

Vasil Kiryienka – After a while in the wilderness, he finally seems to be finding his TT legs again. The route looks good for him, but he could do with it being double the length.

Chris Froome – no idea what happened to him today. He was attacking on the penultimate climb, then disappeared on the descent. Next thing, he’s riding off the back of the main bunch. Sometimes, I just don’t understand what goes on with him. Despite that, he cannot be written off for the TT. It’s unlikely he wins, but you just never know.

Prediction Time

Primoz Roglic to take the stage and GC. I expect a huge performance from him.

*Overall preview

David Hunter

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