{"id":649711,"date":"2026-06-20T23:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649711\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T23:42:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T23:42:19","slug":"tour-de-suisse-2026-route-favorites-and-times-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/649711\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de Suisse 2026: Route, Favorites, and Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes<\/a> is done and dusted, the next major Tour de France preparation race is already waiting. The Tour de Suisse<\/a> may be shorter than before, but that arguably only makes it more intense. Riders who look sharp in the Swiss mountains usually have every reason to believe their legs are coming around nicely for the Tour. IDL Procycling previews<\/a> the race and will keep track of everything you need to know.As mentioned, the Tour de Suisse has been shortened this year, going from eight days to five. Budgets in Swiss races are no longer what they once were in 2026, as we also saw earlier in the Tour de Romandie, where racing went ahead despite financial losses. The organisation, however, presents the new format<\/a> as \u201ca combination of tradition and forward-looking innovation.\u201d We are very curious to see how it plays out.Recent winners of the Tour de Suisse 2026<\/p>\n

2025 Jo\u00e3o Almeida
2024 Adam Yates
2023 Mattias Skjelmose
2022 Geraint Thomas
2021 Richard Carapaz
2020 Not held
2019 Egan Bernal
2018 Richie Porte
2017 Simon Spilak
2016 Miguel \u00c1ngel L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n

Route, stage favorites, and times for the 2026 Tour de SuisseStage 1, Wednesday, June 17, 2026: Sondrio \u2013 Sondrio (144.0 km)\"etappe-1-suisse\"\/What an insane ride we witnessed on day one. After the first mountain, Tadej Pogacar<\/a> decided it was a good moment to attack. The world champion conjured up a spectacular solo and put more than two minutes between himself and second-placed Richard Carapaz: the other rivals lost more than four minutes. You’re welcome.Winner:
Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> (UAE Team Emirates XRG)Stage 2, Thursday, June 18, 2026: Locarno \u2013 Locarno (157.7 km)\"etappe-2-suisse\"\/<\/p>\n

The sting was in the tail, and the race exploded near Locarno. Tadej Pogacar initially wanted to help Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez to victory, but decided to go for it himself when the latter dropped. However, he fell short by a few seconds, as the early breakaway narrowly stayed ahead: Romain Gr\u00e9goire proved too strong for Bart Lemmen there.<\/p>\n

Winner:
Romain Gr\u00e9goire<\/a> (Groupama-FDJ)Stage 3, Friday, June 19, 2026: Bad Ragaz \u2013 Bad Ragaz (157.4 km)\"etappe-3-suisse\"\/<\/p>\n

A wonderful opportunity for the sprinters, who, however, had to survive a tough section with climbing. It was already chaos there, with a duo attack by Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE) and Xandro Meurisse (Pinarello). At the finish, they held on by a few seconds, allowing Narvaez to add another victory to his name.<\/p>\n

Winner:
Jhonatan Narvaez<\/a> (UAE Emirates-XRG)Stage 4, Saturday, June 20, 2026: Aarburg \u2013 Aarburg (23.7 km, time trial)\"etappe-4-suisse\"\/The time trial was a good test for the Tour de France. The 23.7 kilometers provided a delightful spectacle: Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> sat in the hot seat for a long, long time. However, Tadej Pogacar slipped past him at the last moment by just 0.31 seconds.Winner:
Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> (UAE)Stage 5, Sunday, June 21, 2026: Villars-sur-Ollon \u2013 Villars-sur-Ollon (150.7 km)\"etappe-5-suisse\"\/<\/p>\n

The final stage is essentially the only real chance for the pure climbers to properly test their legs. It is climbing right from the start, with the Col de la Croix tackled three times during the day. The first ascent, from the start location in Villars-sur-Ollon, is only 3.9 kilometres to the summit, but it still averages 8.8 percent. After that, the riders take on the full climb twice more: 19.1 kilometres at an average gradient of 7 percent. Once that final major climbing work is done, the last 15.2 kilometres back to Villars-sur-Ollon form the closing chapter of the race.<\/p>\n

This stage should decide the overall classification, especially if the time trial has left the contenders close together. It is the day for the climbers, the day for the Tour hopefuls and the day on which any lingering questions about form will have to be answered.<\/p>\n

Favorites
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious)
Tom Pidcock<\/a> (Pinarello-Q36.5)<\/p>\n

Times
Start: 1:34 p.m. CET
Finish: around 5:30 p.m. CET<\/p>\n

Favorites for the 2026 Tour de Suisse GC<\/p>\n

Naturally, there is one clear favorite, and that is Tadej Poga\u010dar. The Slovenian from UAE Emirates-XRG can enjoy himself in the explosive finales during the opening days, before he should, in principle, look to make the difference in the time trial and on the final stage. We are also very curious to see how Brandon McNulty performs. The American is expected to be one of Poga\u010dar\u2019s key helpers at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s challengers are spread throughout the start list<\/a>. Bahrain Victorious brings two Tour leaders in Antonio Tiberi and Lenny Martinez, while Richard Carapaz returns to stage racing with EF Education-EasyPost after a long spell of injury trouble. That injury period also forced him to miss the Giro d\u2019Italia in May. Lenny Martinez will therefore be one of the names to watch closely. The French climber has the profile to make the most of the final day, while Tiberi gives Bahrain another card for the general classification. If the race becomes tactical, the team could have options.\"lenny-martinez\"\/<\/p>\n

Lenny Martinez<\/p>\n

Jarno Widar is also back in action for Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9. Can the Belgian compete with the very best? That is always the question with Romain Gr\u00e9goire as well, because on his best days the Groupama-FDJ United rider is truly world-class. The same, of course, applies to Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, who has another solid training block in the legs. Whether that is specifically aimed at the Tour is not yet clear. Maybe his week in Switzerland will help provide the answer.<\/p>\n

Tom Pidcock will also want to find good legs at the Tour de Suisse as he builds toward his Tour de France summer. Outsiders for a strong GC result include Jayco AlUla riders Paul Double and Mauro Schmid, Alessandro Pinarello of NSN, and Max Poole, who returns for Picnic PostNL. Tudor also brings two interesting names in Marc Hirschi and Marco Brenner.<\/p>\n

And where do Nairo Quintana and Enric Mas stand at Movistar? Quintana is building toward the summer, while Mas comes out of the Giro. At Visma | Lease a Bike, the focus will be on Dutch riders Wilco Kelderman and Bart Lemmen. Finally, at Soudal Quick-Step, Ilan Van Wilder is someone to keep an eye on, also after a period of training.<\/p>\n

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

Top favorite: Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Outsiders: Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates-XRG)
Long shots: Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Jarno Widar (Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9), Romain Gr\u00e9goire (Groupama-FDJ United), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Max Poole (Picnic PostNL), Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step)<\/p>\n

How to watch Tour de Suisse 2026 on TV<\/p>\n

The Tour de Suisse is organising a complete stage race for both women and men across five days, with both races shown live on HBO Max in the UK and US, on FloBikes in Canada, and free to air on SBS on Demand in Australia<\/p>\n

Click on this link to see how to watch the Tour of Switzerland live on TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes is done and dusted, the next major Tour de France preparation race is already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109589,99800,838,101,8782,44575,218343,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-649711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-idl-productions","tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","tag-previews","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tom-pidcock","tag-tour-of-switzerland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}