Romandie organizer talks absent WorldTeams: 'You have to share the calendar a bit'

Although stars like Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, and Florian Lipowitz are all in attendance at the Tour de Romandie this year, a whopping four WorldTeams opted to skip the race, with Uno-X Mobility, Lotto-Intermarché, Decathlon-CMA CGM, and Alpecin-Premier Tech all taking advantage of UCI rules allowing top-division teams to miss one top-division race each year. Despite the "blow" to his start list, race organizer Richard Chassot expressed some understanding of the teams' decision in a conversation with Wielerflits.

"There are many races taking place on the different continents, so I do understand the teams to some extent," Chassot said, noting that Classics-oriented teams were always unlikely to attend and that Decathlon had explained to organizers that only the sprint-focused squad was available to race a Tour de Romandie bereft of sprint opportunities.

"It’s a mixed feeling," Chassot said. "I don’t mind so much if a few teams don’t show up, but as I said, right now it really is a lot. In principle, for safety reasons, it’s not even that bad to have a peloton of 130 riders. There are a lot of crashes in the peloton these days and things are getting faster and faster. So I don’t necessarily need a peloton of 200 riders at the start. And you have to share the calendar a bit, that’s logical." [Wielerflits]