The Swiss six-stage race features two-time trials, two transition stages, and two mountain top finishes. The 70th edition kicks off with a short, 3.95km prologue in La Chaux-de-Fonds on Tuesday, with the first chance for the sprinters already on stage 1. Followed by an uphill finish atMorgins on day three and a 15km individual time trial on a challenging course at Sion. Stage 4 will be the queen stage to decide the general classification, before concluding a road stage in Geneva to round off the week of racing.

Coach Arthur van Dongen (NED) confirmed the objectives for the Tour de Romandie, saying: “We have two main goals for this race; to go for a stage victory with Tom [Dumoulin] in either the prologue or the time trial, and to focus on the general classification with him.

“The 2016 edition parcours is very demanding and I am expecting a hard race. It will be very important to finish preparing the form of the guys before the start of the Giro d’Italia. We have a balanced team and the experienced Johannes will be our road captain and he will be helping to guide the team in the different scenarios that present themselves.”