ProTeam Sylvain Moniquet looks ahead to the Tour de Romandie

The fatigue from Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne still lingers in the legs, but Sylvain Moniquet hopes to fully awaken in the coming days. The Tour de Romandie kicks off with a tiny prologue of 2.3 kilometers on a course with 13 (!) corners, but Wednesday immediately presents a stage tailor-made for the rider from Namur. "The finish atop Les Marécottes, after ten kilometers of climbing, should suit me," says Sylvian Moniquet. "That's where I've set my sights this week."

Moniquet has already had a solid, yet impressive spring. He finished in the top ten three times at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and placed 9th in Besançon and 11th in the Tour du Doubs last weekend. "Unfortunately, I was caught in that big crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. And in La Flèche Wallonne, I had to abandon due to the cold. We focused maybe too much on keeping our leaders, Andreas (Kron) and Maxim (Van Gils), warm and didn't think enough about ourselves. So, I'm a bit disappointed coming back from the Ardennes classics, I rode in front of my home crowd, but couldn't show myself."

Weather is also something Moniquet must consider this week. It's cold in Switzerland. "Romandie is always unpredictable. We can get anything here, and that doesn't really play to my advantage. I think we really need to prepare for that. Keeping ourselves warm is the key to delivering a good finale here."

"The field of participants is strong, but I believe we have a strong team here. Harm (Vanhoucke) is in good form, Andreas is here, and Milan (Menten) is here for the sprint on the last day. I truly believe we can achieve great things here and earn points for the team."

Picture: Brecht Steenhouwer