Visma | Lease a Bike send Nordhagen to face Pogačar after races against Del Toro and Yates

Visma | Lease a Bike are fielding another young team at the Tour de Romandie. The Dutch outfit are once again turning to Jørgen Nordhagen as their leader, and the 21-year-old Norwegian will have Steven Kruijswijk's experience alongside him as he faces a potential battle with Tadej Pogačar.

The Tour de Romandie this year revolves entirely around Pogačar, who will be riding the Swiss stage race for the first time in his career, hoping to add it to his palmarès. UAE Emirates-XRG are bringing a Grand Tour-worthy support squad to serve him: Vegard Stake Laengen, Kevin Vermaerke, Felix Grossschartner, Pavel Sivakov, Domen Novak and Ivo Oliveira.

The Visma | Lease a Bike approach is rather different. The yellow-and-black squad field Nordhagen as leader, with Kruijswijk as road captain. The rest of the team is very young: Menno Huising, Tijmen Graat and Pietro Mattio all travel to Switzerland, alongside Axel Zingle and Anton Schiffer. Nordhagen is surrounded by familiar faces.

Mattio and Graat rode alongside Nordhagen at the UAE Tour, where the Norwegian finished eighth overall. At the Volta a Catalunya, Nordhagen rode in support of Jonas Vingegaard, with Huising also in that squad. In April, Nordhagen finished second at O Gran Camiño, where Graat and Schiffer were his teammates. Zingle and Kruijswijk are the two riders he has not yet lined up with this season.

At the UAE Tour and at O Gran Camiño, Nordhagen already came up against a strong UAE Emirates-XRG leader. In the Emirates, Isaac del Toro came out on top, while the Spanish race in Galicia went to Adam Yates. In Romandie, Nordhagen gets to test himself against Pogačar — the best rider in the world right now.

He is not the only big name on the start list, though. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe are bringing Daniel Felipe Martínez, Primož Roglič and Florian Lipowitz to Switzerland, Bahrain Victorious are counting on Lenny Martinez and Antonio Tiberi, and Oscar Onley carries the flag for INEOS Grenadiers.