Tour de Suisse 2024

Updated: 6 June 2024

Tour de Suisse 2024 overview

Starting on the final day of the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Tour de Suisse is one of the two main pre-Tour de France warm-up races, taking place from 9-16 June. Packed full of climbing and with two time trials, it is arguably the harder parcours of the two events this year, and as such has attracted many of the purer climbers aiming at July.

This year’s race starts and finishes with individual time trials – the first prologue length, and the second up a 10km climb – and across the week the peloton will take on no fewer than four summit finishes. Despite the relatively little interest for the sprinters, a few big names are headed to Switzerland, presumably to acclimatise to suffering on climbs before the Tour. They include Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Dstny)

As is usual, thanks to its reputation as a Tour predictor, many of the biggest GC names are at the Dauphiné, but there’s still a stellar line-up headed to Suisse. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) returns as the defending champion, and he’ll be up against an in-form Lenny Martínez (Groupama-FDJ), the returning Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), and a whole host of climbers: Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and more.

On the final weekend, the men’s race also overlaps with its women’s equivalent, with the Tour de Suisse Women taking place from 15-18 June.

Tour de Suisse 2024 key information

When is the Tour de Suisse 2024? The Tour de Suisse will start on Sunday, 9 June and finish a week later on Sunday, 16 June.

Where does the Tour de Suisse 2024 take place? As the name suggests, the Tour de Suisse takes place mainly in Switzerland, but this year it will start in neighbouring Liechtenstein, which the race often visits.

Who won the Tour de Suisse in 2023? The 2023 Tour de Suisse was won by Mattia Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) ahead of Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).

When did the Tour de Suisse start? The Tour de Suisse was first raced back in 1933, with that edition won by Austria’s Max Bulla.

Who has the most wins at the Tour de Suisse? The rider with the most overall wins at the Tour de Suisse is Italy’s Pasquale Fornara, with four titles between 1952 and 1958. The rider with the most stage wins is Peter Sagan with 18.

Tour de Suisse 2024 route: a varied route around Switzerland two TTs and plenty of climbing

© Tour de Suisse

The stages of the men's and women's Tour de Suisse

The route for the 2024 Tour de Suisse brings plenty of intrigue, visiting various parts of Switzerland and packing lots of climbing into eight days of racing.

The race starts with a prologue-style TT, coming in at 4.8km around Vaduz, which should be enough to crown the first race leader but not do too much in terms of the GC. The peloton is then slightly eased into things with stage 2 returning to Switzerland, which features three categorised climbs but a flat finish in Regensdorf after a climb in the final 10km.

Stage 3 ramps up into a punchy day, with an uphill finish in Rüschlikon after a rolling day. From stage 4 onwards, it’s all big climbing days with no fewer than four summit finishes in a row. Stage 5 is set to be the hardest, with an 11.5km finishing climb to Carì that has a punishing 8% average gradient, and plenty of steeper ramps. Stage 6 is the day with the most elevation overall, thanks to the visit to the Nufenenpass at 2,479m in the middle of the stage, but the finish is probably the gentlest of the four days. Stage 7 is perhaps the hardest all round, with 2,978m of climbing and two ascents of the Col de la Croix.

To round things off, stage 8 is another TT, which starts flat in Aigle but then hits a climb for the last 10 of the total 16 kilometres. The average hovers around 8%, so this is a real tough ramp, and the final day will sort out the GC if things are not already decided after four hard stages.

Which teams are racing the Tour de Suisse 2024?

As a WorldTour race, the Tour de Suisse start list features the full complement of 18 men’s WorldTour teams, plus five ProTeams and a Swiss national squad.

WorldTour:

• Lidl-Trek
• Alpecin-Deceuninck
• Arkéa-B&B Hotels
• Astana Qazaqstan
• Bora-Hansgrohe
• Bahrain Victorious
• Cofidis
• Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale
• EF Education-EasyPost
• Groupama-FDJ
• Ineos Grenadiers
• Intermarché-Wanty
• Movistar
• Soudal Quick-Step
• dsm-firmenich PostNL
• Jayco AlUla
• Visma-Lease a Bike
• UAE Team Emirates

ProTeam:

• Israel-Premier Tech
• Lotto Dstny
• Q36.5 Pro Cycling
• Corratec-Vini Fantini
• Tudor Pro Cycling

National:

• Switzerland

What happened at the Tour de Suisse 2023?

The Tour de Suisse 2023 was won by Mattias Skjelmose, but will likely be remembered for altogether sadder reasons, as Gino Mäder of Bahrain Victorious died after a crash on stage 5. As a result, stage 6 was neutralised, several riders left the race, and the general classification was very much a secondary story of the race.

This year, the race will pay tribute to Mäder in various ways, which include a mountains prize in his honour and a charity fundraising ride.

Read more: Tour de Suisse to honour Gino Mäder with KoM prize and memorial ride fundraiser

Tour de Suisse history

There was a time when the Tour de Suisse was considered the third most prestigious stage race in the world, behind only the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France. With its first edition debuting back in 1933, two years before the Vuelta a España, the week-long race has built up a rich history and has seen many of the sport’s most legendary names, including Eddy Merckx, Gino Bartali and Hugo Koblet, take an overall title.

Nowadays the race serves as a final tune-up for the Tour de France and typically attracts the other half of the professional peloton that aren’t racing in the Critérium du Dauphiné, another Tour de France warm-up race that often runs in parallel to this one. These two races can also be key for Tour team selections, as riders have often been called up to race the Grande Boucle based on their performances.

While many riders who perform well in the Tour de Suisse go on to score a top result in the Tour de France, only two riders have managed to do the Suisse-Tour double in the same year, a tiny amount compared to the ten riders that have done the Dauphiné-Tour double. Those riders are Eddy Merckx, who first completed the feat in 1974, and Egan Bernal, who matched his achievement in 2019.

Over the race’s 86 editions since 1933, Switzerland have won 23, with two of their most successful riders of all time - Ferdinand Kübler and Hugo Koblet - both on three overall victories apiece. It’s the Italian, Pasquale Fornara, who holds the record for the most wins in this race however, with four taken during the 50s. Well-known riders such as the Irishman Sean Kelly, Italian Gino Bartali and Portuguese Rui Costa have also won multiple editions of the Tour de Suisse.

The Tour de Suisse often starts with a short prologue, followed by a series of stages in the high mountains. The race is renowned for sending riders up some of the highest altitude climbs in the sport of cycling, like the infamous Umbrail Pass - the highest paved road in Switzerland and a climb that ascends to a dizzying height of 2,501m.

The race also often visits the gruelling Furka Pass and legendary St. Gotthard Pass - a road that climbs for more than 50km from some directions and features a staggering 38 switchbacks before its 2,106m-high summit. These three climbs have defined many editions over the race’s 90-year history, with their summits often crowning the overall winner.

Explore more about the Tour de Suisse by clicking on the tabs above.

Major Races

See All

Date	Event	Class
29 Jun - 21 Jul	Tour de France	2.UWT
12 Aug - 18 Aug	Tour de France Femmes	2.WWT
2 Jun - 9 Jun	Critérium du Dauphiné	2.UWT
6 Jun - 9 Jun	Tour of Britain Women	2.WWT
9 Jun - 16 Jun	Tour de Suisse	2.UWT

Provided by FirstCycling