Vollering Headlines A Stacked Tour de Suisse Women Field As The Race Adopts Its New Combined Format
Fresh from overturning the Giro d'Italia Women on its final day, Demi Vollering will headline one of the deepest fields of the season at the Tour de Suisse Women 2026, which begins next week under a reshaped calendar slot and a brand-new combined format. The organisers have aligned the men's and women's races over the same five days and the same locations, a structural change designed to give the women's event the same shop window and the same marquee billing.
Vollering arrives with the strongest recent GC evidence in the peloton. Her last-day raid in Italy, where she clawed back the overall from Anna van der Breggen on the road to complete the comeback, confirmed that the FDJ-Suez leader is peaking at exactly the right moment. A Swiss stage race studded with summit finishes plays directly to her strengths, and she will start as the clear favourite.
She will not have it all her own way. Home favourite Marlen Reusser, now in Movistar colours, will be desperate to perform in front of a Swiss crowd and remains one of the most powerful all-rounders in the bunch. Elisa Longo Borghini of UAE Team ADQ brings Grand Tour-winning pedigree, while Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon//SRAM arrives as the kind of relentless climber who thrives on exactly this terrain.
The new combined model is the headline off the bike. By staging the women's race over the same five days as the men's reduced edition, and across the same towns and mountains, the Tour de Suisse has made a clear statement about parity of exposure. Riders share the same stage finishes, the same television window and the same crowds, a move that mirrors the broader direction of travel in the sport and one that the leading riders have broadly welcomed.
For the GC contenders, the compressed five-day format leaves little room for error. With fewer stages and a route weighted towards the high mountains, a single bad day or a mistimed effort could prove decisive, and the time gaps are likely to be settled by explosive climbing rather than accumulated attrition. That should suit aggressive racers willing to gamble early rather than wait for a grand finale.
Beyond the overall battle, the race doubles as a crucial form check ahead of the summer's biggest objectives, with the Tour de France Femmes firmly on the horizon. Expect every leader here to be racing with one eye on the result in Switzerland and the other on the bigger prizes still to come.