Can anyone beat Tadej Pogačar? Analysing the contenders for the men’s Tour de Suisse

One Tour de France warm-up race has already been and gone as the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes concluded in the high mountains over the weekend. Another is still to come as the Tour de Suisse gets underway on Wednesday.

Of course, these races are much more than just warm-ups for the big one in July. The Tour de Suisse is in its 89th edition this year and stands as one of the most prestigious stage races outside of the three Grand Tours.

Despite the Tour de Suisse’s reduced route, which features a 23.8km time trial and a four-mountain finale on the Col de la Croix, it has still attracted a stellar field of riders. World champion Tadej Pogačar heads up the start list and lines up as the overwhelming favourite to add the overall title to his palmarès.

But there are plenty of other GC hopefuls also heading to Switzerland this week, even if overhauling the Slovenian looks a near-impossible task. Here’s a look at our top contenders for the 2026 Tour de Suisse.

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Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG)

Tadej Pogačar has eight wins to his name in just 11 race days so far in 2026, and the Slovenian is favourite to add to his palmarès here on his Tour de Suisse debut.

The world champion is one of the few Tour de France contenders using the five-day race as his main tuneup for the Tour de France, and he’ll be joined by several key Tour lieutenants, including Nils Politt, Mikkel Bjerg, and Brandon McNulty.

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At the Tour de Romandie, he won four of the five stages and the overall, and he could do similar here. The opening stages in Sondrio and Locarno finish in the hills, while stage 4 is a time trial, and the closing stage passes through the high mountains.

Anything less than another dominant performance in Switzerland would surely raise some questions over Pogačar’s form ahead of the biggest race of the season, but frankly, there’s little to suggest he won’t come away with a healthy margin of victory.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)

Olympic champion Richard Carapaz has been forced to recalibrate his season goals after missing the Giro d’Italia last month. The Ecuadorian couldn’t recover from perineal cyst surgery in time for the May race, and so he’ll lead EF Education-EasyPost at the Tour de France instead.

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Carapaz has won this race before, of course, triumphing in 2021, but he’ll find it hard to repeat the feat this time around. He hadn’t shown top form earlier this spring, with a 10th place at the Volta a Catalunya his best GC result to date, but he did add a third place at GP Gippingen to the results tally on Sunday as he pinned on a number for the first time since March.

He’ll lead EF both at Tour de Suisse and at the Tour de France, with the US team’s squad in July set to do battle on several fronts with Kasper Asgreen, Alex Baudin, and Ben Healy also set to race. Here, he’ll be accompanied by a younger squad, including Luke Lamperti and Colby Simmons. A strong showing on the final mountain stage and a podium spot would be a great outcome.

Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious)

Italian GC hope Antonio Tiberi is forgoing his home Grand Tour this year and making his debut at the Tour de France, with a third career start in Switzerland his main preparation for the race.

He’ll be joined by French climber Lenny Martinez at both races, but should be Bahrain Victorious’ GC leader at both. Tiberi will hope to show some form this week, having been quiet in his recent races.

After a successful start to the season with a string of top-five places – second to Isaac del Toro at the UAE Tour the highlight – he has struggled to make an impact in the past two months.

A seventh place on stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie stands out as his best recent result, with not much else to shout about across Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia Basque Country, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Tour de Romandie. He, Martinez, and Giro d’Italia heroes Afonso Eulálio and Alec Segaert will be hoping for more here.

Enric Mas (Movistar)

At this time of year, Enric Mas is usually preparing for his main goal of the season, the Tour de France. This time around, though, following three abandons in four years in July, he switched his target to the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España.

His debut at the Giro was a disappointing one, however, with the Spaniard racing to 32nd place overall, with a second place in Chiavari his top result along the way. The Tour de Suisse, then, will stand as something of a second chance for Mas.

He’ll be accompanied in the Movistar lineup by Nairo Quintana, who retires at the end of the season. The Colombian has already taken a farewell victory, triumphing at the Vuelta Asturias in April, but he’d love to take one last win at WorldTour level.

Both he and Mas will be looking to start their second half of the season with a focus on La Vuelta here.

Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)

Primož Roglič‘s summer plans remain up in the air. The Slovenian veteran is set to target a fifth Vuelta a España title to secure the all-time win record. Will he race the Tour de France before then? It doesn’t seem likely, but it’s not impossible that he’ll form part of a Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe superteam next month.

Earlier this season, he said, “We’ll see what the summer brings to us” when questioned about his plans before La Vuelta. It seems most likely that a bid at the win in Switzerland – the last major WorldTour week-long stage race missing from his palmarès – is his big goal of the summer, however.

Roglič has won them all, including Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Catalunya, Itzulia, Romandie, and the Dauphiné. At 36, will this be the year he adds the Tour de Suisse to that list? It seems a big ask against Pogačar, even with another strong GC rider in Aleksandr Vlasov on his side. Frankly, it seems unlikely, with his best result to date in 2026 being fifth at Tirreno.

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5)

Tom Pidcock returns to road racing following a brief mountain bike sojourn. Last month, he made his MTB season debut at the second round of the UCI World Cup in Nové Město, taking second place at the short-track cross-country race and winning the Olympic cross-country event.

The races continued his successful early-season on the road, too, with a trio of wins at Milano-Torino and stages of the Vuelta a Andalucía and Tour of the Alps. Suisse is his major preparation race for the Tour de France, and his first road outing since taking second place at Eschborn-Frankfurt at the start of May.

26-year-old Pidcock’s most recent Grand Tour appearance came at last year’s Vuelta a España, where he raced to third overall. Will the Tour see him in GC mode, looking to improve on a career-best 13th place on his July debut for Pinarello-Q36.5? Or will he be in stage hunting mode? Or will it be both? This race may give us a hint.

Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep)

This season marks the first time since 2018 that Soudal-QuickStep don’t have Remco Evenepoel on their books, and the first in three years he’s not their focus for the Tour de France.

Instead, the Belgian team will look to several other riders for success in July as part of a multi-pronged approach. Tim Merlier is the sprinter of choice, while several others – including Ilan Van Wilder, Valentin Paret-Peintre, and Mikel Landa – will be free to chase stage wins and the GC.

26-year-old Van Wilder will head up the team’s selection in Switzerland, even if Landa will likely be the focus in France. A 12th place at the 2023 Giro hinted at what he’s capable of, while he finished eighth here last year. The 11th at Tirreno-Adriatico a few months ago stands as his best result so far in 2026, and he’d be happy to surpass that in his next week of racing.

Others to watch

Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) has been out of action since February’s Volta ao Algarve with a virus and so there is a question mark over whether he is likely to compete in Switzerland. His team recently admitted that the Tour de France “is going to be very difficult or impossible”, but still, he’ll be one to keep an eye on as he continues his recovery.

Fellow youngster, 20-year-old Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarché), has impressed mightily in the under-23 ranks, winning the Giro d’Italia Next Gen and Giro della Valle d’Aosta. He takes on his first-ever WorldTour race at the Tour de Suisse, and the second stage race of his debut pro season after the Volta ao Algarve.

Paul Double (Jayco-AlUla) has shown he can perform at lower-level stage races, having won the Tour of Guangxi and Tour of Slovakia last year. This season, his best result is fifth overall at the Tour of Oman. Can he step it up at WorldTour level this week?

Jan Hirt (NSN) heads to Switzerland off the back of a solid performance at the Giro d’Italia, where he took 12th overall in Rome. The Czech veteran has history at this race, having come fifth on his most recent finish in 2019. He should be there or thereabouts on the final stage.