Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana will be looking to prevent Britain’s Chris Froome from making it three wins in a row at the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, which was to begin yesterday.
Team Sky star Froome, winner in each of the past two years after teammate Bradley Wiggins’ victory in 2012, is hoping victory in the six-stage race will set him up for a crack at the Tour de France, which he won in 2013.
However, Astana’s Nibali, the Italian reigning Tour de France champion, in particular appears as a dangerous threat to Froome, who must shake off the effects of a crash late in last week’s Fleche-Wallonne one-day classic in Belgium in time for the opening 19.2km team time trial.
Photo: EPA
Nibali is wary of the threat posed by Quintana and Froome.
“Quintana raced the Ardennes classics in support of [Alejandro] Valverde, but he’s here in Romandie with a fresh team and we know he can be a protagonist in the mountains,” Nibali said.
“Froome had some bad luck at Fleche Wallonne with the crashes, so his strength may not be among the top this week — but you know he is a great champion who has won here before, so let’s not say he won’t be any less than last year,” he added.
Sky and the other competing teams will see that stage as something of a rehearsal for the ninth stage of this year’s Tour de France, a 28km team time trial in Brittany on July 12.
The decisive stage, and one that could suit Nibali or Quintana, could come on Saturday, when the ride of more than 160km from Fribourg to Champex-Lac features three climbs and a mountain-top finish.
Quintana lines up after drama at home in Colombia, where his parents were robbed of 504,000 Colombian pesos (US$200) in a hold-up at their shop in a village 200km from Bogota.
Police told reporters they had arrested suspects, members of a local gang.
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