Snow forces changes to Tour de Romandie queen stage

The route of Saturday’s queen stage of the Tour de Romandie has been altered due to snowfall on the Col de la Croix. The climb was due to be climbed twice, from two different sides, but the race organisers have been forced to remove the second ascension from the stage.

Stage 4 is tackling its three initial climbs as per the road book – Les Mosses, the Col de la Croix and the Pas de Morgins. At that point, however, instead of climbing the Col de Croix again from the Villar side, the peloton will head straight along the valley via Aigle and Le Sepey before taking in a shallow climb towards the original finish line at Les Diablerets.

The alteration to the route means that the total distance is reduced from 188km to 185km and it also sees the finale altered significantly. While the finish line remains at Les Diablerets, the riders will now climb towards the finish rather than hurtle down towards it from the summit of the Col de la Croix.

Chris Froome (Sky) leads the Tour de Romandie by 6 seconds from Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) after three stages. The race concludes in Geneva on Sunday with an 18.7km time trial.