{"id":738341,"date":"2026-06-15T15:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738341\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:49:15","slug":"2026-tour-de-suisse-elite-women-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738341\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Tour de Suisse Elite Women Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brand-new format has been rolled out for the women’s Tour de Suisse<\/a>. In a five-stage race, we’ll see a mix of riders who’ve just come from the Giro d’Italia Women, or who are already building towards the Tour de France Femmes in August. Demi Vollering won’t be taking part<\/a>, but who will? And what’s in store for them?Recent Tour de Suisse\u00a0winners\u00a02025 Marlen Reusser<\/a>
2024 Demi Vollering
2023 Marlen Reusser
2022 Lucinda Brand
2021 Elizabeth Deignan
Route, stage favorites, and times for the 2026 Tour de Suisse \u2013 Elite WomenStage 1, Wednesday, June 17, 2026: Sondrio \u2013 Sondrio (109.3 km)\"etappe-1-suisse-dames\"\/<\/p>\n

On the opening day, with both start and finish in northern Italy, the women will ride a loop around Sondrio. It includes three categorised climbs, one fewer than the men face. The efforts will be short and sharp, so punchers and climbers could make the difference.<\/p>\n

Favorites
Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal)
Liane Lippert (Movistar)
Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt (Canyon\/\/SRAM)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 9:26 a.m CET
Finish: around 12:15 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 2, Thursday, June 18, 2026: Locarno \u2013 Locarno (105.6 km)\"etappe-2-suisse-dames\"\/<\/p>\n

On day two, we head into Switzerland proper, with both start and finish in Locarno. Two small climbs in the finale could rule out a bunch sprint, but will anyone be able to fight for the win solo or in a small group?<\/p>\n

Favorites
Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt (Canyon\/\/SRAM)
Fransiska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ)
Sarah Van Dam (Visma | Lease a Bike)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 9:32 a.m CET
Finish: around 12:15 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 3, Friday, June 19, 2026: Bad Ragaz \u2013 Bad Ragaz (120.8 km)\"etappe-3-suisse-dames\"\/<\/p>\n

The only real sprint opportunity for the pure sprinters, although there’s climbing from the start and the finish has a slight uphill drag.<\/p>\n

Favorites
Shari Bossyt (AG Insurance-Soudal)
Karlijn Swinkels (UAE ADQ)
Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt (Canyon\/\/SRAM)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 9:18 a.m CET
Finish: around 12:15 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 4, Saturday, June 20, 2026: Aarburg \u2013 Aarburg (23.7 km, time trial)\"etappe-4-suisse-dames\"\/<\/p>\n

Time to ride against the clock! General classification riders with their eyes on overall victory will need to be on their toes in a flat and fairly technical time trial.<\/p>\n

Favorites
Marlen Reusser (Movistar)
Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt (Canyon\/\/SRAM)
Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek)<\/p>\n

Times
Start of the first rider: 10:45 a.m CET
Last rider finishes: around 12:45 p.m CET<\/p>\n

Stage 5, Sunday, June 21, 2026: Villars-sur-Ollon \u2013 Villars-sur-Ollon (100.4 km)\"etappe-5-suisse-dames\"\/<\/p>\n

We close out the race with the only genuine mountain stage, featuring the Col de la Croix twice. It’s split into two sections at the start and finish, but along the way riders take on the full 19.1-kilometre climb at 7 percent in one go.<\/p>\n

Favorites
Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon\/\/SRAM)
Elisa Longo Borghini<\/a> (Lidl-Trek)
Marlen Reusser (Movistar)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 9:02 a.m CET
Finish: around 12:05 p.m CET<\/p>\n

2026 Tour de Suisse Elite Women GC Favourites<\/p>\n

How do the riders compare to one another? Who handles the opening stages best? And who can really fly against the clock? Home rider Marlen Reusser is without doubt a major favourite \u2014 the Swiss rider from Movistar is a serious time trialist and will surely improve on her thirteenth place at the Giro d’Italia.<\/p>\n

Elisa Longo Borghini was already very strong at the Giro. The Italian from UAE Team ADQ finished fourth, but the top three from that race aren’t here in Switzerland. Maeva Squiban is her teammate. With Kasia Niewiadoma, she’ll face a fresh rival, as the Pole from Canyon\/\/SRAM went straight to a training camp after the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo<\/p>\n

\"kasia-niewiadoma\"\/<\/p>\n

Kasia Niewiadoma<\/p>\n

With Vollering absent from FDJ-SUEZ, Franziska Koch and Juliette Berthet get free rein to ride for their own results. Yara Kastelijn is without doubt the woman to watch at Fenix-Premier Tech, after her overall win in the Basque Country and second place in Burgos in May. How will she return to racing after a month off?<\/p>\n

At AG Insurance-Soudal, Kim Le Court and Ur\u0161ka \u017digart represent two serious outsiders, while at EF Education-Oatly we’re curious to see the legs of world champion Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res and C\u00e9drine Kerbaol. From a Dutch perspective, we’re watching Femke de Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), with Nienke Vinke (SD Worx-Protime) also a dangerous customer.<\/p>\n

IDL Pro Cycling top GC picks, 2026 Tour de Suisse Elite Women\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top favorites: Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)
Outsiders: Franziska Koch (FDJ United-SUEZ), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon\/\/SRAM), and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek)
Long shots: Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ), Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech), Kim Le Court and Urska Zigart (AG Insurance-Soudal), Magdeleine Vallieres and C\u00e9drine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Femke de Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Nienke Vinke (SD Worx-Protime)<\/p>\n

How to watch Tour de Suisse 2026 Elite Women on TVThe Tour de Suisse is hosting a full five-day stage race for both women and men, with the women\u2019s race airing live in the morning between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.<\/a>You can watch all the action on HBO MAX<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brand-new format has been rolled out for the women’s Tour de Suisse. In a five-stage race, we’ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,205605,290026,57970,85,355742],"class_list":["post-738341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-elisa-longo-borghini","tag-marlen-reusser","tag-previews","tag-sports","tag-tour-of-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}