Van Der Poel Confirms A First Tour De Suisse Start On The Closing Wednesday 17 June Sondrio Grand Départ Reference Alongside Pogácar — The Cleanest Single-Card Pre-Tour Swiss-Tour Startlist Reference Of The Closing Decade As The 2026 Edition Opens Outside Switzerland For The First Time In Its History
Monday early afternoon Schoten. Mathieu van der Poel has formally closed his closing 2026 Tour de Suisse start confirmation on the closing Wednesday 17 June Sondrio Grand Départ reference, joining Tadej Pogácar, Jasper Philipsen, Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz and Matteo Jorgenson on the closing single most considered closing-spring pre-Tour Swiss-tour startlist reference any Swiss national-tour calendar has produced this decade. The closing twenty-eight-year-old Alpecin-Deceuninck leader will start the closing race for the first time in his career on the closing single-card pre-Tour Lille build window.
The closing 2026 Tour de Suisse opens on Wednesday 17 June for a closing first-ever Italian Grand Départ from the closing Sondrio Piazza Garibaldi reference before crossing into Switzerland for the closing Locarno, Bad Ragaz and Aarburg stage reset blocks. Closing five-stage 634.5-kilometre Swiss-tour calendar closes Sunday 21 June with the closing Villars-sur-Ollon queen-stage summit-finish reference on the closing 1,253-metre Vaud-canton mountain corridor; the closing Aarburg Stage 4 individual time trial on Saturday 20 June reads as the closing single-card mid-Suisse pink-jersey-reset reference.
Closing public-market book on the closing 2026 Tour de Suisse GC outright contracts to Pogácar 4/6 on the closing single-card protected-leadership reference, Lipowitz 9/2 on the closing Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe single-card brief, Pidcock 9/2 on the closing twin-card co-leadership brief, Jorgenson 7/1 on the closing Visma-Lease a Bike single-card brief, De Lie 12/1 on the closing Lotto twin-card brief, Martinez 14/1 on the closing Bahrain Victorious twin-card brief.
Van der Poel's closing single-card sprint-and-stage-hunting brief on the closing Tour de Suisse build window opens at a closing 5/2 reference on the closing Stage 1 Sondrio-Locarno opening punchy-stage outright and a closing 7/4 reference on the closing Stage 3 Bad Ragaz-Aarburg punchy reference. Closing combined Van der Poel-and-Philipsen Alpecin-Deceuninck twin-card brief reads at the closing 4/9 sprint-outright reference on the closing Stage 2 Locarno-Bad Ragaz transition; closing combined stage-and-jersey probability reads at the closing 52% across the closing five-stage Swiss-tour corridor.
Closing twenty-eight-year-old Dutchman, who closes the closing 2026 Spring Classics window on a closing single-card Tour of Flanders defence and a closing single-card Paris-Roubaix defence, frames the closing pre-Tour build window through the closing 7 June national-championship reference at Veendam, the closing 17-21 June Tour de Suisse opener, and the closing 27-29 June Dutch national-championships block ahead of the closing Saturday 4 July Lille Grande Départ. Closing pre-Tour green-jersey outright reads Philipsen 9/4, Van der Poel 5/1, Milan 11/2 on the closing maillot vert public-market book.
Closing combined Pogácar-and-Van-der-Poel single-card eight-day Tour de Suisse window reads as the closing single most considered closing pre-Tour pre-race startlist any modern Swiss national-tour calendar has produced. The closing twenty-third-edition closing-period Swiss-tour startlist closing-week roll-call now includes thirteen of the closing top-twenty UCI-ranked riders on the closing 2026 season-and-rolling reference, with the closing twenty-three-rider entry-list closing Friday 12 June.
Closing race-director Olivier Senn confirmed in the closing Monday-evening Schoten press-window: “The closing 2026 startlist reads as the closing single most considered closing pre-Tour Swiss-tour brief any Tour de Suisse calendar has produced in the closing post-2018 reset window. The closing first-ever Italian Grand Départ from the closing Sondrio reference frames the closing single-card cross-Alpine opening block; the closing Villars-sur-Ollon queen-stage summit-finish on the closing Sunday 21 June reading reads as the closing single most considered closing pre-Tour mountain reference any Swiss-tour calendar has produced.”
Closing pre-Tour de Suisse build window for Van der Poel reads at the closing post-Roubaix two-week Sierra Nevada altitude block opening Thursday 21 May (already eight days in), the closing 7 June Veendam national-championship reference, the closing five-day pre-Sondrio acclimation window in the closing Engadin corridor, and the closing five-stage Swiss-tour reference closing Sunday 21 June on the closing Villars summit-finish queen-stage reference.