The 89th edition of the Tour of Switzerland starting tomorrow is special for several reasons. First of all, because the race returns to being contested over 5 stages (June 17-21) as in its earliest editions in the 1930s, so as to avoid clashing with the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes and give the opportunity for the Tour of Switzerland women's race, itself a WorldTour event, to take place simultaneously on a practically identical route, only slightly shortened. Then, because for the first time in its history the race will start from Italy, from Sondrio.

The race will be broadcast live on Discovery+ channels.

The Route

As mentioned, therefore, the start will be from Valtellina, with the Sondrio - Sondrio stage of 144 km. It will be an immediately explosive stage, with the final 17 km characterized by the short but steep climbs of Ponte in Valtellina (1.4 km at 9%) and Bordighi (1.1 km at 11.5%). The general classification contenders will likely start putting some pressure on right away.

The second stage will have a very similar development, starting and finishing in Locarno for 157.7 km overall: in the final 18 km there are the climbs of Fanghi (3.5 km at 7%) and Orselina (1.4 km at 8.9%) that will make the finish very open. The stage that looks easiest on paper is the third, starting and finishing in Bad Ragaz for 157.4 km with all the altitude difficulties concentrated in the first part of the stage.

On the fourth day there is an interesting time trial, 23.7 km almost entirely flat, starting and finishing in Aarburg, perfect for specialists. The highlight of the week comes, however, on the final day, with the Villars-sur-Ollon - Villars-sur-Ollon stage of 150.7 km. The stage is nothing more than a triple lap of a circuit that includes the climb to the Col de la Croix (19.1 km at 7%), where the town of Villars-sur-Ollon is located, for an experiment that had already been tried two years ago, but over only two laps, with victory going to Adam Yates. To be precise, the finish will be located after 9.6 km at 8% of the Col de la Croix climb.

(Altitude profiles on the cover)

The Favorites

The reduction in stages does not seem to have harmed the race in terms of participation, quite the opposite. First of all, for the first time Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) will be at the start, who in his quest to "complete cycling" aims to add another piece to his endless palmares, after winning the Romandia a couple of months ago.

Behind him is an interesting array of podium contenders: there is Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), also making his Tour of Switzerland debut, and then there are Lenny Martinez and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), who are warming up ahead of a Tour de France where they want to be protagonists. There are the returning Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who skipped the Giro for physical reasons. Keep an eye on Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Enric Mas (Movistar), Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) and Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana).

For the stages Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-PremierTech) will test his legs, but also keep an eye on Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Matthew Brennan (Visma | Lease a Bike), Marc Hirschi (Tudor), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarchè), Corbin Strong (NSN) and Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost).