Tour de Suisse 2026 Begins: Pogacar Makes His Debut In One Final Tour de France Rehearsal
The 89th Tour de Suisse rolls out on Wednesday, and for the first time in his career Tadej Pogacar will be on the start line. The world champion has never ridden the Swiss WorldTour stage race, instead building toward July on the roads of the Criterium du Dauphine in previous seasons. This year he has switched his final block of preparation to the Alps and foothills of central Switzerland, and he arrives as the overwhelming favourite for the overall.
The five-day race runs from 17 to 21 June, opening in Sondrio just over the Italian border and finishing on the climb to Villars-sur-Ollon. It is a deliberately compact, climbing-heavy edition, and for UAE Team Emirates-XRG it serves a single purpose: to sharpen Pogacar's form before he chases a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title in Barcelona on 4 July. Victory in Switzerland would draw him level with Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain on five Tour wins.
Pogacar will not have it all his own way. The man standing between him and the yellow jersey of the Tour de Suisse is his own teammate. Joao Almeida is the only rider in the modern era to have won this race three years in a row, and the Portuguese climber lines up bidding to extend that streak to a remarkable fourth title. Almeida's spring was wrecked by a virus that forced him out of the Giro d'Italia and cost him nine weeks of racing, and he has openly tempered expectations after a difficult return at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes. A home-from-home in Switzerland, where he has been untouchable, may be exactly the tonic he needs.
Beyond the UAE pairing, the start list is one of the strongest the race has seen. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) returns to a race he has long made his own and will be desperate to test his climbing legs against Pogacar before the Tour. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) headlines the puncheurs and sprinters, with Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), young Visma sprinter Matthew Brennan and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarche) all chasing stage wins on the rolling early days.
The general classification is likely to be settled in the final two days, when the race tips decisively uphill. Until then, expect the sprinters and breakaway specialists to fight over the opening stages while the GC men shelter and save their matches. For Pogacar, the priority is kilometres in the legs and a clean week; for Roglic and the rest, the Tour de Suisse is the last chance to land a psychological blow before the season's biggest prize.
The women's peloton races alongside the men once again, with the Tour de Suisse Women expanding to five stages over the same five days and locations. Between them, the two races make the third week of June a genuine dress rehearsal for the Grand Tours to come — and the clearest sign yet of where the form lies before the road to Barcelona and the Tour de France Femmes.