Tour de Romandie next for Porte

Richie Porte continues his march to the Tour de France with the 25 - 30 April Tour de Romandie next on his stage racing calendar.

Richie Porte Source: Getty

As usual, Porte will target the highest general classification placing possible in the mountainous five-stage race 

"After Paris-Nice, I have had a good block of training at home in Monaco, so now it is important to test my legs in race conditions," Porte said.

The opposition will come from the likes of Chris Froome (Sky), Romain Bardet (AG2R), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac).

"The competition is always strong at the Tour of Romandie, so a good result is important," Porte said.

"We open with the prologue and end with a time trial that is well-suited to me, and I hope to be up there on every climb as I look towards my big goal this year, the Tour de France.

"When we get to this point in the season every race day counts."

Supporting Porte will be Tejay van Garderen, who will add some extra racing days before he leads BMC at the Giro d'Italia, Tom Bohli (SUI), Stefan Küng (SUI), Daniel Oss (ITA), Nicolas Roche (IRL), Michael Schär (SUI) and Danilo Wyss (SUI).

"We are heading to Tour de Romandie with Richie Porte as our leader and with a strong and determined team around him," sports director Fabio Baldato said.

"Richie is now beginning the final phase of work before the Tour de France, and this is a real building block ahead of July.

"Tejay van Garderen will also be able to test himself here before the Giro d'Italia. For both riders, this is an important race for their Grand Tour ambitions this year."

"With BMC Switzerland our title sponsor, this is a home race for us, and we have the added motivation of having four Swiss riders on our team."