Tour de Suisse

The Tour de Suisse is a men's WorldTour cycling stage race held each June in Switzerland. First run in 1933, it delivers Alpine climbing, time trialing, and technical descents across multiple days, making it one of the most complete tests of stage-racing form on the calendar.

The Tour de Suisse is Switzerland’s national stage race, first held in 1933. Its roads cross the high Alpine passes, and the Gotthard has been climbed more than 40 times, more often than any other. Ferdi Kübler and Hugo Koblet each won it three times, but the record of four wins belongs to the Italian Pasquale Fornara.

Max Bulla wins the first Tour de Suisse in 1933

Max Bulla arrived in Zurich one hour before the start of the first stage. The Austrian had raced in Antwerp and in Troyes and then traveled through the night by train. He won two stages and the race, 9 minutes 1 second ahead of Albert Büchi. That first edition had five stages and covered 1,253 kilometers, and 45 of the 60 starters finished.

During the Second World War the race was held only twice. The 1941 edition had three stages, and after 606 kilometers Sepp Wagner and Werner Buchwalder were level on time. A sprint on the track was to separate them. Rain and nightfall moved it from the open-air track in Oerlikon into the Hallenstadion, where Wagner won. A year later Kübler took the first of his three titles.

Kübler, Koblet and Pasquale Fornara’s record four wins

The race had its heyday in the 1950s, in the years of Kübler against Koblet. Each finished with three overall wins, one second place and eleven stage wins. Kübler won in 1942, 1948 and 1951, Koblet in 1950, 1953 and 1955. Kübler was known for his breakaways and Koblet for his time trials. Only Peter Sagan, with 18, has won more stages, and he never won the race overall.

Fornara rode his third Tour de Suisse in 1952 as Koblet’s helper. In the time trial from Monthey to Crans-Montana he took the leader’s jersey, and Kübler finished second overall. Fornara won again in 1954, when neither Kübler nor Koblet started, and in 1957 and 1958. No rider has matched his four wins. Rui Costa won three in a row from 2012 to 2014.

How Sepp Voegeli brought Eddy Merckx to the race in 1974

Sepp Voegeli took over the race in 1967 with a debt of 92,000 Swiss francs, a small bundle of files and one contract with a stage town. He ran it until 1991. In 1974 the soccer World Cup in Germany competed for the public’s attention, and Voegeli paid a generous fee to bring Eddy Merckx to the race for the first time. Merckx arrived a few days after winning his fifth Giro d’Italia. He led from the prologue to the finish, won three stages and took the mountains and points classifications as well. He came back in 1975 and finished second behind Roger De Vlaeminck.

Egan Bernal defends yellow on the Furka in 2019

The final stage in 2019 packed three passes above 2,100 meters into 101 kilometers: the Nufenen, the Gotthard and the Furka. Hugh Carthy rode about 90 kilometers alone and won in Ulrichen. Behind him Egan Bernal defended the yellow jersey against Rohan Dennis, who attacked near the top of the Furka. Bernal stayed with him, the two left the other contenders behind, and Bernal won the race by 19 seconds.

Bernal had started as deputy to Geraint Thomas and took over when Thomas crashed out on stage 4. He won the stage on the Gotthard and held his lead in the time trial on the second-to-last day. At 22 he was the third-youngest winner in the race’s history, and he won the Tour de France that year.

Geraint Thomas and the Vaduz time trial in 2022

Thomas had lost the 2015 race in the final time trial, when Simon Špilak overtook him and won by five seconds. In 2022 he started in the service of Adam Yates and Daniel Martínez, and became the leader when Yates left the race with COVID-19. On the climb to Malbun in Liechtenstein, Thibaut Pinot won from the breakaway and Sergio Higuita attacked the favorites to take the lead. Thomas was two seconds behind him.

The last stage was a time trial of 25.6 kilometers around Vaduz. Remco Evenepoel won it by three seconds from Thomas, who took the race by 1 minute 12 seconds from Higuita. Thomas was 36 and the first British winner.

Gino Mäder and the 2023 Tour de Suisse

On June 15, 2023, Gino Mäder crashed on the descent of the Albula Pass, close to the finish of stage 5 in La Punt. Mäder, 26, was flown to the hospital in Chur and died the next day. Stage 6 was not raced, and the peloton rode about 30 kilometers together to Oberwil-Lieli in his memory.

The race went on after the organizers had spoken with Mäder’s family. Mattias Skjelmose, 22, won it by nine seconds from Juan Ayuso, who took the final time trial to Abtwil. He was the first Danish winner. From 2024 the organizers retired race number 44, which Mäder was wearing when he crashed.

Almeida in 2025 and Pogačar’s five-day race in 2026

João Almeida lost 2 minutes 52 seconds to Kévin Vauquelin on the first stage in 2025. He won stages 4 and 7 on the way back. He started the final time trial, 10 kilometers uphill from Beckenried to Stockhütte, 33 seconds behind. He won it and took the race by 1 minute 7 seconds. A year earlier he had finished second, 22 seconds behind Yates.

In 2026 the men’s race was cut from eight days to five. Each stage started and finished in the same place, and the women raced on the same days. The first stage was in Sondrio, in Italy, and the last at Villars-sur-Ollon. Tadej Pogačar rode the last 70 kilometers of the opening stage alone and finished 2 minutes 14 seconds ahead of Richard Carapaz. He also won the time trial in Aarburg and the final stage, and took his first Tour de Suisse by 6 minutes 32 seconds from Carapaz.

This is the last serious altitude block before the Tour de France, and it attracts riders who need high-mountain race days more than they need rest. The Swiss Alps reward power, descending skill, and the ability to recover overnight across consecutive hard stages. The time trial separates the pure climbers from the complete stage racers, and the route offers little room to hide. It is also one of the final chances to see how the biggest names are actually riding before they enter Grand Tour lockdown, making it a reliable indicator of July form.