Tadej Pogačar the clear favourite at his first stage race of the year – Analysing the Tour de Romandie contenders

We may only be a day out of the Spring Classics, but the cycling calendar moves on quickly, and it's back to WorldTour stage racing on Tuesday with the start of the six-day Tour de Romandie, headlined by Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Coming so close to the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland is usually a race for the riders on track for the Tour de France and often marks the early start of the Tour build-up. It follows Itzulia Basque Country and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, so it often sees two different types of Tour riders converge for the first time: those who have committed their spring to stage racing, and those who were off doing the Classics.

This year, the Tour de Romandie route kicks off with a 3.2km pan flat time trial, and then very little flat for the rest of the week, with the following five road stages featuring between 2,100 and 3,500m of climbing.

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Several of the stages can be counted as medium mountain or hilly stages, with only one summit finish, which leaves them open to a lot of different outcomes, and opportunities abound for breakaway specialists and non-GC climbers – even those not going for the overall win can be hopeful of a stage victory here.

The GC will be decided on the final two stages, which each pack in three and a half thousand metres of elevation and category-1 climbs. The race's only summit finish comes at the end of the very last day, where the peloton will climb 14.3km up to the 1,300m altitude at Leysin.

One look at the start list will very quickly reveal to you one clear favourite in Pogačar, who is riding Romandie for the first time this year in a slight change to his usual Tour build-up, but the lack of longer climbs and abundance of punchier, opportunistic stages could play into the hands of his rivals. They have plenty of chances to try to get the jump on him, instead of just praying they survive in the mountains.

Challenging the Slovenian will be the likes of established GC riders Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers) and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), plus some younger and newer riders who have been impressing so far this spring and look primed for a big step up.

With just 24 hours until the prologue gets underway in Villars-sur-Glâne, here are Cyclingnews' picks for the GC contenders at the Tour de Romandie.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Tadej Pogačar has only raced five one-day races so far in 2026, and indeed hasn't done a stage race since the Tour de France, but he's Tadej Pogačar, so he's still the out-and-out favourite for Romandie this week as he starts to try and tick off the one-week races he hasn't won before. In fact, he has never even started Romandie, but again, that just doesn't matter. He's Tadej Pogačar.

He'll start the prologue on Tuesday fresh off his fourth Liège victory, and with four wins from his five race days so far, the only miss being his defeat at Paris-Roubaix. With his standard approach of a racing-light programme heading into the summer, we're yet to see him in a stage race in 2026, so we haven't seen him take on any longer climbs or mountains this year. There's nothing to suggest he isn't already in great form, but it will be a test and a switch of pace from the Classics.

Pogačar lines up as the favourite, and the most likely scenario is probably that he will win, but other teams are coming here with strong options and will see this as a very, very rare opportunity to try and steal a win back from Pogačar, so expect a big battle this week, nonetheless.

Florian Lipowitz and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe head to Romandie with probably the team most likely to be able to challenge Tadej Pogačar. Florian Lipowitz will be their leader, and he has been proving this year that his Tour de France podium finish last summer was far from a fluke.

He's done three stage races so far this year and finished eighth, third and second overall, with back-to-back podiums in Catalunya and Itzulia in the last month, so his form is clearly high. He will come into Romandie confident and aiming to try to beat Pogačar, with second overall probably his minimum ambition.

Aside from Lipowitz, Red Bull are also fielding Primož Roglič this week, and it will be interesting to see what he's capable of. Theoretically, the Slovenian has been nudged down the pecking order at Red Bull. However, in reality, he's not showing any signs of slowing, fifth at Tirreno-Adriatico already this year with some strong results elsewhere too. Romandie should be about Lipowitz, but you can never write Roglič off, and if he sees an opportunity to help his teammate or himself, he will take it.

Oscar Onley (Ineos Grenadiers)

Oscar Onley had a good start to life at Ineos with his fourth overall at the Volta ao Algarve, but his spring has been lowkey since then with a DNF at Paris-Nice and 12th in Catalunya. With hopes of a repeat top five at the Tour later this summer, he has headroom to make up to prove he can challenge the best, so a lot of eyes will be on him at Romandie. The mix of medium and hard stages should suit his abilities, and he seems to go well on this terrain, 16th at Romandie last year and then third at the Tour de Suisse.

The young Scot has struggled a little bit with poor fortune this season, whether it's illness or crashes, so the main thing this week will be to get through without issue so that he can actually show his true level as we get into the serious build-up for the Tour.

Outside of the GC, keep an eye on Onley's teammate Dorian Godon, who has been excelling in the in-between stages so far this year – his climbing ability and fast finish could well net him a stage win here.

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious)

Antonio Tiberi has had an up-and-down season so far, starting well at the UAE Tour and Volta Comunitat Valenciana but then really taking a dip with a poor Tirreno-Adriatico and a DNF at Itzulia Basque Country. He was back in action on Sunday at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and now heads straight to Romandie to continue his preparation for the Tour, skipping his home Giro this year.

The Italian is a rider who usually comes good on the longer, steadier climbs, so the slightly shorter efforts in Romandie might not suit him perfectly, but should give him an opportunity to get back into the rhythm and test himself against some big names. He's repeatedly shown his stage racing ability; he just needs it all to come together for a good result.

If it's not a week for Tiberi, Bahrain can also look to Lenny Martinez to hunt stages.

Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla)

Home hopes this year will probably lie on the shoulders of Jayco AlUla's Mauro Schmid, who is on a searing run of form so far in 2026. The Swiss rider has been a key protagonist in every race he's started this year, finishing second at the Tour Down Under, fourth in Oman and then winning the Settimana Coppi e Bartali. He then backed up these 'smaller' results with a fantastic week in the Ardennes – sixth in Amstel, second in Flèche Wallonne, 11th in Liège – to prove that he can do it on the biggest stage, too.

The GC at Romandie is clearly a level above, and he might be realistically looking at the top 10 rather than the top five or podium, but his level is definitely high right now.

Luke Plapp is also back in action for the first time since the UAE Tour, where he came third. The Australian is still yet to really prove himself as a GC contender on the European circuit, but the signs get better every year, and he can aim for a good result here, whether that's on a stage or overall.

Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Visma-Lease a Bike head to Romandie with an uncharacteristically weak team, by their standards, with no Vingegaard vs Pogačar warm-up on the cards. Of their line-up, four are under 24, and will all see this race as an opportunity to test themselves.

Their best GC option, however, will probably be Jørgen Nordhagen, the young Norwegian who's finished eighth at the UAE Tour and second at O Gran Camiño so far this season. Those are obviously different – arguably lower-level – races compared to Romandie, but they show his potential, and have also given him experience of being a GC leader. He and the team will be interested to see how he deals with the step up in Switzerland this week.

Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep)

QuickStep's 2026 so far has mainly been about their Classics rebuild, but we can't forget that they do still have some solid GC riders in their ranks. Valentin Paret-Peintre just finished fourth overall at the Volta a Catalunya, and seems to be coming good earlier in the season than he has previously, where his results have been mainly in the Grand Tours.

He's aiming at another good summer, so he will be hoping for a good result here, and his results so far place him among the list of solid stage race contenders.

Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost)

Georg Steinhauser is usually seen as more of a stage hunter than a GC rider, but his overall podium finish at Paris-Nice last month has definitely boosted his GC stocks. He did not finish the Volta a Catalunya, so Romandie will be a bit of a test to see if that Paris-Nice result was a stroke of luck or a sign of things to come, but he has a solid EF team around him and will take confidence from standing on the podium in France a few weeks ago.

Particularly if he's able to grab some time in a breakaway, he could reap the benefits all the way to the end of the week.