Tour de Romandie 2008

The professional race season's attention moves away from the Classics and toward the Big Tours, the first being the Giro d' Italy from May 10.

The 2008 Tour de Romandie is very much a curtain raiser for the Giro, being held over five stages, plus a prologue from April 29 to May 4.

Held first in 1947 and won in 2007 by Thomas Dekker (Rabobank), this mountainous test has been won by many top riders including Cadel Evans in 2006 and three times by Stephen Roche.

The opening prologue is held at tea time around Geneva and is followed by a stage one mountain finish, in fact there is little respite form the climbs throughout the race.

Saturday is the 'Queen' Stage from Sion to Zinal. That stage is not long with only 127 km, but there are four Cat. I climbs to be conquered before the finish is reached at an altitude of 1,677 meters.

Team High Road field Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish in this UCI Pro Tour event. Hopefully Wiggins will shine on the stage three Sion to Sion 18,8 km time trial.

Stages
Prologue - Genève
April 29 Etape 1 - Morges - Saignelégier
May 1 Etape 2 - Moutier - Fribourg
May 2 Etape 3 - Sion - Contre la montre
May 3 Etape 4 - Sion - Zinal
May 4 Etape 5 - Le Bouveret - Lausanne

Teams
ALM Ag2r-La Mondiale FRA
AST Astana LUX
BTL Bouygues Télécom FRA
COF Cofidis, le Crédit Par Téléphone FRA
C.A Crédit Agricole FRA
CSC CSC DEN
EUS Euskaltel - Euskadi ESP
FDJ Française Des Jeux FRA
GCE Caisse d’Epargne ESP
GST Gerolsteiner GER
THR High Road USA
LAM Lampre ITA
LIQ Liquigas ITA
MRM Team Milram ITA
QST Quick Step BEL
RAB Rabobank NED
SDV Saunier Duval - Scott ESP
SIL Silence-Lotto BEL
BMC Racing Team

Past Winners
2000 Paolo Savoldelli Saeco
2001 Dario Frigo Fassa Bortolo
2002 Dario Frigo Vini Caldirola
2003 Tyler Hamilton Team CSC
2004 Tyler Hamilton Phonak Hearing Systems
2005 Santiago Botero Phonak Hearing Systems
2006 Cadel Evans Davitamon-Lotto
2007 Thomas Dekker Rabobank

Website - www.tourderomandie.ch

Provisional Entry
ALM Arrieta Jose Luis
ALM Calzati Sylvain
ALM Elmiger Martin
ALM Gadret John
ALM Goubert Stéphane
ALM Kangert Tanel
ALM Senac Jean-Charles
ALM Turpin Ludovic

AST Frei Thomas
AST Iglinskiy Maxim
AST Klöden Andreas
AST Morabito Steve
AST Muravyev Dmitriy
AST Yakovlev Sergey

BMC Bodkwalter Brent
BMC Bovay Steve
BMC Kohler Martin
BMC Louder Jeff
BMC McKissick Ian
BMC Miller Nathan
BMC Moos Alex
BMC Wyss Danilo

BTL Bernaudeau Giovanni
BTL Bonnaire Olivier
BTL Clément Stef
BTL Crosbie Nicolas
BTL Jérôme Vincent
BTL Tschopp Johann

C.A Berthou Eric
C.A Bodrogi Laszio
C.A Botscharov Alexandre
C.A Fofonov Dmitriy
C.A Halgand Patrice
C.A Kern Christophe
C.A Konovalovas Ignatas
C.A Talabardon Yannick

COF Brard Florent
COF Demaret Jean Eude
COF El Fares Julien
COF Hary Maryan
COF Moncoutié David
COF Taaramae Rein
COF Zampieri Steve

CSC Gustov Volodymir
CSC Kolobnev Alexander
CSC Larsson Gustav
CSC Sorensen Nicki

EUS Astarloza Mikel
EUS Azanza Jorge
EUS Isasi Inaki
EUS Oroz Juan José
EUS Pérez Rubén
EUS Txurruka Amets
EUS Zubeldia Haimar

FDJ Casar Sandy
FDJ Cherel Mickäel
FDJ Coppel Jérome
FDJ Di Gregorio Rémy
FDJ Gudsell Timothy
FDJ Jussi Veikkanen
FDJ Mourey Francis
FDJ Roy Jérémy

GCE Lopez David
GCE Losada Alberto
GCE Moreno Daniel
GCE Pereiro Oscar
GCE Uran Rigoberto
GCE Zandio Xabier

GST De Bonis Francesco
GST Fothen Markus
GST Frank Mathias
GST Haussler Heinrich
GST Kohl Bernhard
GST Ordowki Volker
GST Scholz Ronny
GST Zaugg Oliver

LAM Baldato Fabio
LAM Bono Matteo
LAM Bossoni Paolo
LAM Loosli David
LAM Righi Daniele
LAM Santambrogio Mauro
LAM Szmyd Sylwester
LAM Tiralongo Paolo

LIQ Albasini Michael
LIQ Beltan Manuel
LIQ Corioni Claudio
LIQ Fischer Murilo
LIQ Kreuzinger Roman
LIQ Matej Mugerli
LIQ Santaromita Ivan
LIQ Vanotti Alessandro

MRM Barla Luca
MRM Ghisalberti Sergio
MRM Jurco Matej
MRM Sabatini Fabio
MRM Schröder Björn
MRM Schwager Sebastian
MRM Velits Martin
MRM Velits Peter

QSI Carrara Matteo
QSI Efinkin Alexander
QSI Engels AD
QSI Garate Juan Manuel
QSI Rosseler Sébastien
QSI Scarselli Leonardo
QSI Schwab Hubert
QSI Viganò Davide
QSI Weylandt Wouter

RAB De Groot Bram
RAB Elyzen Michiel
RAB Flens Rick
RAB Leezer Tom
RAB Menchov Dennis
RAB Mollema Bauke
RAB Ten Dam Laurens
RAB Thomas Dekker

SDV Bertogliati Rubens
SDV Canada David
SDV Capecchi Eros
SDV Gomez Marchante Angel
SDV Jufre Pou Josep
SDV Lobato Ruben
SDV Mori Manuele
SDV Pagliarini Luciano

SIL Aerts Mario
SIL Cornu Dominique
SIL Devenyns Dries
SIL Gates Nick
SIL Jacobs Pieter
SIL McEwen Robbie
SIL Roesems Bert
SIL Vanhuffel Wim

THR Cavendish Mark
THR Davis Scott
THR Hansen Adam
THR Martin Tony
THR Pinotti Marco
THR Possoni Morris
THR Rabon Frantisek
THR Wiggins Bradley