Favorites stage 3 Tour of Romandie 2025 | Can Brennan survive another tricky stage and sprint for the win?

The third stage of the Tour de Romandie could well be the least difficult stage of the Swiss stage race on paper. However, Switzerland has virtually no completely flat roads, so Friday will again involve some serious climbing.

The start and finish are both in Cossonay, where the organizers have set out all kinds of local laps. As the riders are used to by now, it will be up and down all day. However, with the climb to Monchterand (4.7 kilometers at 4%), there is not much to fear in the opening phase.

The climb to the start and finish in Cossonay (2.2 kilometers at 5.8%) will not worry many riders, nor will the Col Du Mollendruz (14.1 kilometers at 3.1%), although the latter is quite long. However, the uphill finish is likely to make the difference. This is located at the top of the climb to Cossonay, which means that strong punchers and good climbing sprinters could win.

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On Friday, the riders will again have nothing to complain about in Romandie. With lovely sunshine, the temperature will rise to 24 degrees Celsius without wind or rain.

The organizers of the Tour de Romandie have once again presented us with a stage that could unfold in many different ways. The most likely scenario seems to be an uphill sprint between the strong but fast riders. The main contender here will be Matthew Brennan. The young British rider from Visma | Lease a Bike proved himself a contender earlier this week and hopes to repeat his success.

In the stage Brennan won, Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R) and Artem Schmidt (INEOS Grenadiers) finished second and third, respectively. That's why we're definitely adding the Frenchman (not Schmidt, because he didn't finish the second stage), as well as Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty, fourth), Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL, sixth), Milan Menten (Lotto, eighth) and Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost, twelfth), the current leader in the stage race.

Of course, the question remains: will the GC contenders shake things up? The course doesn't seem tough enough for that, but Remco Evenepoel blew the race wide open on Thursday. The Belgian rider from Soudal Quick-Step could do well on a finish like this, but the question is whether he will want to do so with the tough final weekend ahead. The same goes for GC contenders such as Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto, second on Thursday), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates - XRG).

Otherwise, Friday will mainly be about the attackers. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), prologue winner Samuel Watson (INEOS Grenadiers), Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty), Iván Romeo (Movistar), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana), Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) and, of course, good old Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek).

Top favorite: Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike)