Dates 29 April–4 May 2014 Distance 632.77 km (393.2 mi) | Stages 5 + Prologue Winning time 16h 18' 46" | |
Winner Chris Froome (Great Britain) Second Simon Špilak (Slovenia) | ||
The 2014 Tour de Romandie was the 68th running of the Tour de Romandie cycling stage race. The race consisted of six stages, beginning with a prologue stage in Ascona on 29 April and concluding with another individual time trial, in Neuchâtel, on 4 May. It was the fourteenth race of the 2014 UCI World Tour season.
Contents
In exactly the same podium positions as the 2013 edition, Great Britain's Chris Froome of Team Sky won the race for a second successive year, after winning the final time trial stage in Neuchâtel. Having trailed Team Katusha rider Simon Špilak by a single second going into the stage, Froome turned the deficit into a 28-second race-winning margin over the 18.5 km (11.5 mi) stage. Špilak finished second, having won the race's third stage – the queen stage into Aigle – by beating Froome in a two-up sprint, after the pair had attacked towards the end of the stage. The podium was completed again by Rui Costa, now riding for Lampre–Merida, who finished third for the third year in a row. Costa finished 64 seconds behind Špilak, and one minute 32 seconds behind Froome.
In the race's other classifications, the Movistar Team's Jesús Herrada was the winner of the white jersey for the young rider classification as he was the highest placed rider born in 1989 or later, finishing in ninth place overall, 16 seconds ahead of nearest rival, FDJ.fr's Thibaut Pinot. Martin Kohler of the BMC Racing Team won the green jersey for the most points gained in intermediate sprints, while the pink jersey for the King of the Mountains classification went to Johann Tschopp of IAM Cycling. The teams classification was won by the Movistar Team, after the squad placed three riders – Beñat Intxausti (sixth), Jon Izagirre (eighth) and Herrada – inside the top ten overall.
Teams
As the Tour de Romandie was a UCI World Tour event, all 18 UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Only IAM Cycling were awarded a wildcard place into the race, thus completing the 19-team peloton. Pre-race favourites were Chris Froome, Tejay van Garderen, Michał Kwiatkowski, Simon Špilak, Vincenzo Nibali and Rui Costa.
The 19 teams that competed in the race were:
Prologue
Prologue Result and General Classification after Prologue
Stage 1
The stage was originally scheduled to be held over 203 km (126.1 mi), but was significantly shortened due to snow.
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Classification leadership table
In the 2014 Tour de Romandie, four different jerseys were awarded. For the general classification, calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage, and allowing time bonuses in mass-start stages – on a basis of ten seconds to the stage winner, six seconds for second place and four seconds for third place – the leader received a yellow jersey. This classification was considered the most important of the 2014 Tour de Romandie, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race.
Additionally, there was a young rider classification, which awarded a white jersey. This was decided in the same way as the general classification, but only riders born after 1 January 1989 were eligible to be ranked in the classification. There was also a mountains classification, the leadership of which was marked by a pink jersey. In the mountains classification, points were won by reaching the top of a climb before other cyclists, with more points available for the higher-categorised climbs; there were fourteen categorised climbs in the race, split into three distinctive categories.
The fourth jersey represented the sprints classification, marked by a green jersey. In the sprints classification, cyclists received points for finishing in the top 3 at intermediate sprint points during each stage, with the exception of the individual time trial stages. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists per team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest total time.