The Vallée de Joux is a valley in the Jura. A high valley that is, located at 1,000 metres above sea level. The Vallée lies about 50 kilometres to the north of Geneva and it offers three lakes: Lac de Joux, Lac Brenet and Lac Ter. The time trial starts at the south side of Lac du Joux.
The major part of the stage is along the shores of Lac de Joux and later Lac Brenet. At the time riders leave the shores of Lac de Joux a false flat takes them in 1.5 kilometres to Lac Brenet. When they say goodbye to Lac Brenet the end of the TTT is almost there. Just 1.5 kilometres to go, but at the same time this is the toughest bit.
The climb up Col du Mont d’Orzeires totals 2.25 kilometres at an average gradient of 2.5%, with the last section the most tricky at 5%. Of course this is a joke compared to what riders have to swallow in the remainder of this week, but expect lots of pain and grimaces in this section. Just imagine to be in the wheel of someone like Tony Martin…
From the pass it is 800 metres to the finish line. One again at an altitude of 1,020 metres, so the road goes down by almost 6% in that last section.
In 2014, the Tour de Romandie opened with a prologue in Ascona. Michal Kwiatkowski won, besting Rohan Dennis and Marcel Kittel.
Here you’ll read race results and race report.
Tour de Romandie 2015 stage 1: Route, profiles and more
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