Tour de Suisse 2026 Stage 1 Preview: Pogacar And Van der Poel Clash On The Sondrio Wall
The 2026 Tour de Suisse gets underway today with a stage tailor-made for drama, a 144-kilometre opening loop that starts and finishes in Sondrio and never actually crosses into Switzerland, staying entirely on Italian roads in the shadow of the Alps. In a race trimmed from eight days to a compact five-day edition, every stage matters, and the organisers have served up an explosive puncheur's day to set the tone.
The first 55 kilometres are flat, but from there the route fractures into a relentless series of short, savage climbs. The decisive sequence comes late: a 1.4-kilometre ramp at 9 percent with 16 kilometres to go, a fast descent into an intermediate sprint, and then almost immediately the final wall to Bordighi, just 1.1 kilometres long but averaging a brutal 11.5 percent. It crests with five kilometres remaining, leaving a quick, slightly technical descent and a flat run-in to settle matters.
All eyes are on Tadej Pogacar, who arrives in Switzerland using the race purely as a final dress rehearsal for his bid to equal the record for Tour de France overall victories. "I'm arriving at the Tour de Suisse feeling strong," the World Champion warned ahead of the start, an ominous message for a field that already knows how hard he is to beat on a climb this steep, where his power-to-weight advantage is most punishing.
His most credible rival on a finale like this is Mathieu van der Poel, who chose the Tour de Suisse specifically to build towards July and was in peak form at exactly this point last season. Following Pogacar up an 11.5 percent wall is, as one preview put it, a hellish mission, but the Alpecin-Deceuninck star is one of the very few with the explosivity to even try.
Beyond the two headliners, the startlist reads like an Ardennes Classic. Lenny Martinez could do real damage on a stage reminiscent of the one he won at Paris-Nice, while Primoz Roglic and Richard Carapaz are well suited to the punchy terrain. Add in puncheurs such as Julian Alaphilippe, Romain Grégoire, Thibau Nys and home favourite Mauro Schmid, and the depth behind the favourites is staggering.
The general classification picture will also begin to take shape today. Pogacar is widely expected to pull on the first leader's jersey, with the battle behind him likely to revolve around Roglic's BORA squad and a Bahrain-Victorious team built around Martinez and time-trial threat Antonio Tiberi. With a flat individual time trial and a fearsome queen stage on the Col de la Croix still to come, the Sondrio opener is the first of several chances for the contenders to draw blood.
One major name will be missing: Tom Pidcock withdrew on the eve of the race with a viral infection, removing a genuine wildcard from the puncheur fight. His absence only sharpens the sense that, barring a rare off-day, this opening stage is Pogacar's to lose.