Riders gathered in Switzerland at the end of April for Tour de Romandie 2025. The short stage race would commence with a prologue and continue with five stages, including challenging mountain stages and an individual time trial.

In an untypical fashion for road cycling of present times, the short stage race features both a prologue and a time trial, which add to the excitement of the race and offers variety to both the riders and the spectators, while respecting and honoring the various disciplines of professional road cycling.

The prologue of Tour de Romandie 2025 would be contested on a 3.44-kilometer route in the hilly streets of Saint-Imier, close to the French border in the Jura Mountains.

General classification favorites who were included in the start list of Tour de Romandie 2025 included Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Matthew Brennan (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), Luke Plapp (Jayco-Alula), Oscar Onley (Team Picnic-PostNL), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis Team), and Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers), who is sadly riding his final season and will surely be missed in seasons to come.

23-year-old Lennert van Eetvelt of Team Lotto was the first rider to leave the start ramp in Saint-Imier. The racing conditions were splendid, and the riders were starting the prologue of the race under sunny skies and with temperatures around twenty degrees Celsius.

Joao Almeida delivered a fast performance for UAE Team Emirates and his performance would position him well for the general classification battle in the stages to follow. The performance from Aleksandr Vlasov for Red Bull – Bora – Hansgrohe was also approved. 

Movistar Team’s Ivan Romeo had set the fastest finishing time by completing the short route in 04:36 minutes. It was yet to be seen if other riders would be able to complete the course faster than the Spanish rider.

The countdown was on for Jay Vine and the UAE Team Emirates rider set out to finish his prologue as well as possible to enable him to target his goals in the mountain stages to come in this year’s Tour de Romandie. Vine squeezed himself into third place, though many riders were yet to start their prologue efforts.

Bahrain-Victorious captain Lenny Martinez and Lidl-Trek team captain Juan Pedro Lopez fought hard in the streets of Saint-Imier and both appeared very motivated. Martinez finished eighth in the preliminary results. 

Switzerland’s Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R) was competing on home turf and the time trial expert was hoping to deliver an impressive performance in today’s fast prologue. Bissegger struggled in a sharp turn and finished the prologue in third place, with other riders yet to leave the start ramp.

Time trial expert Remi Cavagna of Groupama-FDJ also left the start ramp. The French rider, known as the TGV train from Clermont-Ferrand, was also eager to prove his worth in the Swiss streets. The route was too varied to allow Cavagna to obtain top speed today, but he would still have a chance in the final time trial or perhaps in a long breakaway effort with other breakaway optimists such as Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen of EF Education-EasyPost.

Ivo Oliveira of Portugal and UAE Team Emirates managed to beat Romeo’s finishing time and was the new rider in the hot seat.

Geraint Thomas started his prologue effort. The Welsh Ineos-Grenadiers rider is riding his final season, and the 2018 Tour de France winner is hoping to leave a noteworthy mark on his final races. Thomas finished second in the GC of Giro d’Italia 2023 and has also won Paris-Nice, Tour de Suisse, Criterium du Dauphine, and Tour de Romandie.

Remco Evenepoel was yet to start his prologue, and the Belgian rider was looking great in his time trial World Champion outfit and on his golden Specialized S-Works time trial bike. The Belgian rider left the start ramp with a blast and delivered a powerful effort on his bike to finish fifth in the preliminary standings.

Swiss rider Stefan Küng delivered a proud performance in his home country. The Groupama-FDJ rider finished fifth, thereby squeezing Evenepoel down to sixth place.

Julien Vermote crashed heavily into the barriers and the Visma-Lease a Bike appeared confused and contused when he got back on his bike. Fortunately, he had only leased his Cervelo bike.

Great Britain’s Samuel Watson surprisingly set a new fastest time for his Ineos-Grenadiers outfit. What a huge disappointment for previous prologue leader Ivo Oliveira. 

Samuel Watson proved the strongest rider in the prologue of Tour de Romandie 2025 and the Ineos-Grenadiers rider is the race leader before tomorrow’s stage 1, which will be contested on a 194.3-kilometer route from Munchenstein to Fribourg. The stage will feature three categorized climbs mid-stage.

Ivo Oliveira is ranked second in the general classification ahead of Ivan Romeo and Stefan Bissegger. Remco Evenepoel is eighth, Jay Vine ninth, Joao Almeida eleventh, and Lenny Martinez sixteenth. 

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from Tour de Romandie 2025 and the rest of the professional cycling season.