As the Dauphine is wrapping up, the other World Tour preparation stage race for the Tour de France, the Tour de Suisse, is just beginning. Though Suisse is surely a preparation race for the Tour, it is prestigious in its own right as well…more so than the Dauphine. The Tour de Suisse is the older brother to the Tour de Romandie. It is the most prestigious bike race in all of Switzerland. Whereas Romandie and the Dauphine were a part of the wave of races that popped up after the Second World War, the Tour de Suisse has been run since 1933. But it is not only because of age that it is more prestigious. As the title says: this one theoretically encompasses an entire country instead of only a regional province, it is a national Tour for all the Swiss peoples to rally around just as the French, Italians, and Spanish proudly do for their Grand Tours. Though Switzerland is not large enough to entertain a mighty three-week odyssey, it can serve up a righteous proper testing race. Yes, this is what adds to Suisse’s prestige: this race is also in the running—and probably takes the cake—for the historically toughest weeklong stage race in cycling.
We have highlighted the ever-consistent horrid conditions the Tour de Romandie is raced under in late-April. Alas!—or Huzzah! Depending who you are—the Swiss mountain conditions in mid-June often turn out to be only slightly less poor for the Tour de Suisse. To have the verdant green pastures and rolling hills with the backdrop of snow-capped mountains take copious amounts of precipitation, and the Spring rains usually have not stopped by mid-June. Suisse will not have stage cancellations or alterations due to snow and ice like Romandie, but it too is lucky if the riders need not wear warm gloves with thick waterproof jackets. And what Suisse lacks in freezing weather, it makes up for in formidable stage profiles. Yes, yes, I dare say, often the Tour of the Basque Country can puke out relentlessly stupid-hard profiles for its six days of racing, and the Volta a Catalunya can find similar high altitudes as well, but for my money: the Tour de Suisse takes the cake for toughest weeklong stage race in cycling. It is eight or nine stages of racing that pure sprinters do not even consider attending—what fantastic lunacy it would be for them to show up. Yes, yes, the “easiest” days of this race are won by the all-rounder sprinters and puncheurs who go very well in the Northern Classics in both Flanders and the Ardennes. The ones who can get over a couple Category3 or Category2 climbs before a sprint that is usually uphill. Meanwhile, the highest mountain days are won by the bona fide Grand Tour star of stars who shall soon compete in a few weeks’ time at the Tour de France. Although, every year even a handful of Giro participates or even stars of that Giro will double back to Suisse to ride out any last form they have left before a Midsummer break. Why and how? After riding a three-week Grand Tour, within a fortnight the riders are doubling-back to perform at this hardest of weeklong stage races? Yes, yes, unlike the Dauphine which is a full-fledged Tour tune-up race, this Tour de Suisse really is that prestigious that many riders wish to win it for its own sake in their careers. It must be admitted though, doubling back from Suisse after doing the Giro rarely goes well for anyone: from the domestique to the Grand Tour winner that tries, all are usually on their hands-and-knees at the finish of this one—if they even do finish at all.
Yes, yes, the highest passes the Tour de Suisse tackles can be counted alongside the most iconic climbs of the Grand Tours. But alas! Because Suisse has not the status of the Grand Tours, the Furka Pass and St Gotthard are not as hallowed as l’Alpe D’Huez or the Stelvio. The Furka Pass has the famous Belvedere Hotel on one of the hairpins, ah! ah! all serious cycling fans will recognize it when they see it. And the St Gotthard pass has those beautiful cobble stones towards the top of its long ascent. Often, possibly every year, these climbs are used: sometimes even in the same stage, and sometimes they are repeated in multiple stages across that year’s edition. Yes, yes, that last detail almost sounds heretical, but I tell you Suisse pulls it off when using those iconic climbs. Ah! but in the Swiss Alps there are a plethora of other climbs to draw on as well. And it is not just about going up them, but down as well. I tell you, 90% of the interviews I have heard with professional cyclists discussing the fastest speed they have ever reached on a bike was on some sort of steep Swiss descent—usually a tunnel is involved as well for that cuts down the wind resistance. Those fastest speeds were usually reached in training, but the Tour de Suisse is a race where supersonic descending skills often make the highlights. Yes, always there is at least one race against the clock in each edition of the Tour de Suisse. But of course, the crucial Time Trial is rarely pan flat. Often, often descending skills on a TT bike are required. O! On those precarious aero machines, on those steep descents with sharp corners, it is harrowing viewing. The General Classification (GC) men, who set off at the end, risk it all on those descents, for every second counts. Yes, yes, rarely is the margin ever large to determine the winner of this most prestigious of weeklong stage races.
In the same vein as the oldest Monuments and Grand Tours on the calendar, the Suisse honor rollcall of champions is extremely distinguished. The winner of Suisse has their name written alongside Ferdi Kubler, Gino Bartali, Hugo Koblet, Jose-Manuel Fuente, Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Hennie Kuiper, Giuseppe Saronni, Sean Kelly, Andy Hampsten, Fabian Cancellara, and Egan Bernal. Yes, yes, there is more to cycling than the Grand Tours, the Monuments, and the World Championships, and close to the top of that “more to cycling” list is this Tour de Suisse for all the reasons just laid out. It is a brutal week and two weekends of racing. It is a head-scratcher how this is a good race to be assigned as a final tune-up objective a fortnight before the big dance in France—ah! ah! are these racers not digging too deep so close to the Tour? And yet every year, riders with Tour de France ambitions first saddle-up for the Tour de Suisse. The racing is fierce and hard, but so are the riders who come out the other side of it: warriors who have gained glory and more chest-hair in rough-around-the-edges racing. Yes, yes, the Tour de Suisse is another one for the hardmen. It is another one for proper champions. It is another one where stories of great renown are added to the palmares of legends.
Cycling Odysseys 