One Tour de France warm-up race has already been and gone because the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes concluded within the excessive mountains over the weekend. One other remains to be to come back because the Tour de Suisse will get underway on Wednesday.
After all, these races are way more than simply warm-ups for the massive one in July. The Tour de Suisse is in its 89th version this 12 months and stands as one of the vital prestigious stage races outdoors of the three Grand Excursions.
This 12 months, the race has been decreased from eight days to 5, operating June 17-21 from Sondrio to Villars-sur-Ollon. As soon as stretching to even 10 or 11 days, the race’s new size is, within the phrases of its organisers, an try to make sure it may stay „financially sustainable and future-proof.“
Regardless of the Tour de Suisse’s decreased route, which encompasses a 23.8km time trial and a four-mountain finale on the Col de la Croix, it has nonetheless attracted a stellar area of riders. World champion Tadej Pogačar heads up the beginning listing and features up because the overwhelming favorite so as to add the general title to his palmarès.
However there are many different GC hopefuls additionally heading to Switzerland this week, even when overhauling the Slovenian appears to be like a near-impossible job. Here is a have a look at our prime contenders for the 2026 Tour de Suisse.
You could like
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Workforce Emirates-XRG)
Tadej Pogačar has eight wins to his title in simply 11 race days up to now in 2026, and the Slovenian is favorite so as to add to his palmarès right here on his Tour de Suisse debut.
The world champion is likely one of the few Tour de France contenders utilizing the five-day race as his primary tuneup for the Tour de France, and he’ll be joined by a number of key Tour lieutenants, together with Nils Politt, Mikkel Bjerg, and Brandon McNulty.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, critiques and skilled shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
On the Tour de Romandie, he received 4 of the 5 phases and the general, and he might do comparable right here. The opening phases in Sondrio and Locarno end within the hills, whereas stage 4 is a time trial, and the closing stage passes by the excessive mountains.
Something lower than one other dominant efficiency in Switzerland would absolutely increase some questions over Pogačar’s kind forward of the most important race of the season, however frankly, there’s little to recommend he will not come away with a wholesome margin of victory.
Richard Carapaz (EF Training-EasyPost)
Olympic champion Richard Carapaz has been compelled to recalibrate his season objectives after lacking the Giro d’Italia final month. The Ecuadorian could not recuperate from perineal cyst surgical procedure in time for the Might race, and so he’ll lead EF Training-EasyPost on the Tour de France as an alternative.
What to learn subsequent
Carapaz has received this race earlier than, in fact, triumphing in 2021, however he’ll discover it laborious to repeat the feat this time round. He hadn’t proven prime kind earlier this spring, with a tenth place on the Volta a Catalunya his greatest GC consequence up to now, however he did add a 3rd place at GP Gippingen to the outcomes tally on Sunday as he pinned on a quantity for the primary time since March.
He’ll lead EF each at Tour de Suisse and on the Tour de France, with the US crew’s squad in July set to do battle on a number of fronts with Kasper Asgreen, Alex Baudin, and Ben Healy additionally set to race. Right here, he’ll be accompanied by a youthful squad, together with Luke Lamperti and Colby Simmons. A robust exhibiting on the ultimate mountain stage and a podium spot can be a terrific final result.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious)
Italian GC hope Antonio Tiberi is forgoing his house Grand Tour this 12 months and making his debut on the Tour de France, with a 3rd profession begin in Switzerland his primary preparation for the race.
He’ll be joined by French climber Lenny Martinez at each races, however needs to be Bahrain Victorious‘ GC chief at each. Tiberi will hope to indicate some kind this week, having been quiet in his latest races.
After a profitable begin to the season with a string of top-five locations – second to Isaac del Toro on the UAE Tour the spotlight – he has struggled to make an impression previously two months.
A seventh place on stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie stands out as his greatest latest consequence, with not a lot else to shout about throughout Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia Basque Nation, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Tour de Romandie. He, Martinez, and Giro d’Italia heroes Afonso Eulálio and Alec Segaert shall be hoping for extra right here.
Enric Mas (Movistar)
Presently of 12 months, Enric Mas is often getting ready for his primary purpose of the season, the Tour de France. This time round, although, following three abandons in 4 years in July, he switched his goal to the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.
His debut on the Giro was a disappointing one, nonetheless, with the Spaniard racing to thirty second place general, with a second place in Chiavari his prime consequence alongside the way in which. The Tour de Suisse, then, will stand as one thing of a second probability for Mas.
He’ll be accompanied within the Movistar lineup by Nairo Quintana, who retires on the finish of the season. The Colombian has already taken a farewell victory, triumphing on the Vuelta Asturias in April, however he’d like to take one final win at WorldTour degree.
Each he and Mas shall be trying to begin their second half of the season with a deal with La Vuelta right here.
Primož Roglič (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Primož Roglič’s summer season plans stay up within the air. The Slovenian veteran is about to focus on a fifth Vuelta a España title to safe the all-time win report. Will he race the Tour de France earlier than then? It does not appear seemingly, but it surely’s not inconceivable that he’ll kind a part of a Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe superteam subsequent month.
Earlier this season, he stated, „We’ll see what the summer season brings to us“ when questioned about his plans earlier than La Vuelta. It appears most probably {that a} bid on the win in Switzerland – the final main WorldTour week-long stage race lacking from his palmarès – is his large purpose of the summer season, nonetheless.
Roglič has received all of them, together with Paris-Good, Tirreno-Adriatico, Catalunya, Itzulia, Romandie, and the Dauphiné. At 36, will this be the 12 months he provides the Tour de Suisse to that listing? It appears a giant ask towards Pogačar, even with one other robust GC rider in Aleksandr Vlasov on his facet. Frankly, it appears unlikely, together with his greatest consequence up to now in 2026 being fifth at Tirreno.
Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5)
Tom Pidcock returns to street racing following a short mountain bike sojourn. Final month, he made his MTB season debut on the second spherical of the UCI World Cup in Nové Město, taking second place on the short-track cross-country race and successful the Olympic cross-country occasion.
The races continued his profitable early-season on the street, too, with a trio of wins at Milano-Torino and phases of the Vuelta a Andalucía and Tour of the Alps. Suisse is his main preparation race for the Tour de France, and his first street outing since taking second place at Eschborn-Frankfurt firstly of Might.
26-year-old Pidcock’s most up-to-date Grand Tour look got here ultimately 12 months’s Vuelta a España, the place he raced to 3rd general. Will the Tour see him in GC mode, trying to enhance on a career-best thirteenth place on his July debut for Pinarello-Q36.5? Or will he be in stage looking mode? Or will or not it’s each? This race could give us a touch.
Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep)
This season marks the primary time since 2018 that Soudal-QuickStep haven’t got Remco Evenepoel on their books, and the primary in three years he is not their focus for the Tour de France.
As a substitute, the Belgian crew will look to a number of different riders for achievement in July as a part of a multi-pronged strategy. Tim Merlier is the sprinter of selection, whereas a number of others – together with Ilan Van Wilder, Valentin Paret-Peintre, and Mikel Landa – shall be free to chase stage wins and the GC.
26-year-old Van Wilder will head up the crew’s choice in Switzerland, even when Landa will seemingly be the main focus in France. A twelfth place on the 2023 Giro hinted at what he is able to, whereas he completed eighth right here final 12 months. The eleventh at Tirreno-Adriatico a number of months in the past stands as his greatest consequence up to now in 2026, and he’d be pleased to surpass that in his subsequent week of racing.
Others to look at
Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) has been out of motion since February’s Volta ao Algarve with a virus and so there’s a query mark over whether or not he’s prone to compete in Switzerland. His crew lately admitted that the Tour de France „goes to be very tough or inconceivable“, however nonetheless, he’ll be one to control as he continues his restoration.
Fellow teen, 20-year-old Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché), has impressed mightily within the under-23 ranks, successful the Giro d’Italia Subsequent Gen and Giro della Valle d’Aosta. He takes on his first-ever WorldTour race on the Tour de Suisse, and the second stage race of his debut professional season after the Volta ao Algarve.
Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla) has proven he can carry out at lower-level stage races, having received the Tour of Guangxi and Tour of Slovakia final 12 months. This season, his greatest result’s fifth general on the Tour of Oman. Can he step it up at WorldTour degree this week?
Jan Hirt (NSN) heads to Switzerland off the again of a strong efficiency on the Giro d’Italia, the place he took twelfth general in Rome. The Czech veteran has historical past at this race, having come fifth on his most up-to-date end in 2019. He needs to be there or thereabouts on the ultimate stage.
