For Tiesj Benoot, the upcoming Tour de Suisse will be far from an ordinary race. Absent from competition since last October's Lombardia, the Belgian will make his 2026 debut in the stage race that kicks off tomorrow from Sondrio and, at the same time, will finally wear the colors of the team he decided to join this winter for the first time, namely Decathlon CGA CGM.

"It's a special moment. My last race was the Lombardia in October 2025, so I can't wait to get started again" declared the native of Ghent through his team's official channels.

"It was a strange feeling watching the Classics on TV and then seeing the guys I trained with for so long put in a great performance at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. I spent almost four weeks in Sierra Nevada and it was absolutely crucial to get back to my best level".

Pinning on his number in 24 hours, Benoot will have definitively put behind him the long and difficult rehabilitation period he faced following surgery for a herniated disc that he was forced to undergo in mid-February.

Since then, the winner of the 2018 Strade Bianche, who dreamed of making his mark with his new team in the Northern Classics he loves so much, had to draw on all his patience to recover properly and then, once the initial period of complete rest was over, return to training and rebuild his legs and condition from scratch.

Fortunately for him, this process encountered no setbacks and, month after month, he progressively increased the intensity and difficulty of his training until he regained more than sufficient form to resume talking about plans, objectives and calendar, starting four months late what is, in his case, a season that still has everything to prove.