For prestige, charm, length and hardness, the Tour of Switzerland over the years it has earned the nickname of “Fourth Great Tour”. The competition with the Giro del Dauphiné has reduced it a bit from the point of view of the quality of the starters, but the Swiss race, which this year from 9 to 16 Juneremains one of the best possible approaches to the Tour de France.
If the Dauphiné is haunted for the Italians, the Tour of Switzerland is not at all, given that from 1933 to today the Azzurri have won it 19 times and are second only to the hosts, who have won 23 times. With 4 victories in the 50s, Pasquale Fornara it also holds the record of successes, but it should be underlined that in the new millennium no Italian has ever won. Francesco Casagrande, in 1999, was the last to take the yellow jersey, while Damiano Caruso, 2nd in 2017, was the last to get on the podium.
PATH
This year we start from… Liechtenstein! It will in fact be the capital Vaduz to kick off the dancing with a short time trial 4.8 km, completely flat, which will be useful for assigning the first leader’s jersey. The next day he will leave Vaduz and return to Switzerland, with an expected arrival in Regensdorf After 177.3 km. In the final, pay attention to the Regensberg (2.2 km at 7.7%), which will have to be overcome 10 km from the finish and could put some fast men in difficulty.
The third stage is for sprinters, from Steinmaur to Rüschlikon For 161.7 km. The last 35 km are a continuous up and down, albeit without deadly tears, and difficult to interpret, with the final 800 meters leading to the finish constantly rising at 7-8%. The first real boost to the general classification will be given by the fourth stage, the Rüschlikon – Gotthard Pass Of 171km. The final climb is a classic of this race: I am 21.1 km at 5.6%not very hard but really long, with the finish line above two thousand meters above sea level.
However, the fifth stage will probably do even more damage Ambrì – Carì Of 148.6 km. After an intense start with the climbs of Altanca (5 km at 9%) and Carì (9.6 km at 8.2%), we will pass under the finish line and then, after 90 km relatively calm, there will be a new finish uphill to Carì, from the opposite side to the one faced at the start. I am 11.5km climb at 8%, destined to make more than a few differences. The riders, however, will no longer have room to catch their breath, because the sixth stage, from Locarno to Blatten For 151.4km, puts another difficult uphill finish on the table. Less than 60 km from the finish line you reach 2500 meters above sea level Nufenenpass (13.7 km at 7.9%), and then the uphill finish is tough, towards Blatten, with 6.9 km of climbing at 9.3%.
If the three previous stages still hadn’t given any indication of who could win the Tour of Switzerland, the Col de la Croix stage comes to the rescue. Departure and arrival of the sixth stage are at Villars-sur-Ollon, a town 4 km from the summit of the famous hill. We then start uphill to reach the top (4 km at 8.7%), after which the runners will once again face the entire Col de la Croix (17.1 km at 7.1%) and then, after the descent, again, partially, until the arrival of Villars-sur-Ollon (8.6 km at 8%). It will be 118.2 km which will be explosive to say the least. However, he will put the exclamation point on the race there stopwatch the final. Flat? Nope, this one is also uphill, still on the slopes of the Col de la Croix. From Aigle you go to Villars-sur-Ollon for 15.7 km: after the first 5 flat km, we begin to climb for 10.2 km of climbing at 8% of medium slope. For climbers, in the last 5 stages, it will be like being at an amusement park.
(Altitudes on the cover)
FAVOURITES
The 2023 edition is vivid in the memories of fans more than anything due to the tragic death of Gino Mäder, who will also be remembered and celebrated properly this year. Last year he finally won Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), who cleverly beat Ayuso and Evenepoel. The Dane will be there again this year with No. 1 on his shoulders and has all it takes to try to repeat himself.
The absence of extraterrestrials gives a good chance to several runners, starting with the increasingly convincing one Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), but also Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Enric Mas (Movistar), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) e João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates). After the constant and encouraging start to the season, the approach to the Tour of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) passes through here, and who knows he might even manage to land a pass given the many stages suited to his characteristics.
They see each other again later Cian Uijtdebroeks (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), after retiring from the Giro, e Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny), fresh from an extraordinary start to the season which, however, saw him only involved in one-day classics. From a general ranking perspective they will then have to be kept an eye on Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Sergio Higuita, Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe), Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Nairo Quintana and Einer Rubio (Movistar), Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La World), which dedicated itself on these roads last year, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), William Junior Lecerf (Soudal-QuickStep), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Wilco Kelderman (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), George Bennett And Stephen Williams (Israel-PremierTech) e Yannis Voisard (Tudor).
Among fast runners, however, pay attention to the eclectic Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek), a Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Jordi Meeus (Bora-hansgrohe), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), Marijn Van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Tobias Lund Andresen (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla), Pascal Ackermann (Israel-PremierTech) e Arnaud De Lie (Dstny Lot).
For the Italians, a supporting race is expected, but who knows, maybe something interesting might come of it with a few breakaways. So pay attention to Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious), Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Samuele Battistella and Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan), Fausto Masnada (Soudal-QuickStep) e Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5).
