Preview - Tour de Suisse 2022 stage 2

196 kilometers on the second day of racing at the Tour de Suisse, this one with a flatter start – with a relatively flat first half of the day. The second half will be tougher though, with three ascents that will make the differences in the day. The climb to Gempen with 70 kilometers (5.6Km; 5.9%) will warm things up.

Everyday the GC can be raced, and this will be no exception, although not the most favourable to attack.

The ascent to Eichenberg – not to be confused with the Flandrien Eikenberg – will summit with 42 kilometers to go. It’s a constant hilltop, where attacks are unlikely to come however there will be some damage done – in it’s 3 kilometers it features 7.5% average gradient.

And with 14.5 kilometers to go there will be the final ascent, the Challpass which features 6.2 kilometers at 6.2%. Not a tough climb, however with some hard pace it can for sure cause a small group to arrive at the top together. Furthermore the roughest gradients come towards the end which should encourage an explosive dash to the summit.

From there on there will be a fast descent with some flat sections, down until the last four kilometers which should be flat. All of this is terrain where a chase can be effective, so it will be hard to stay away.

**** Max Schachmann

*** Andreas Kron, Marc Hirschi

** Michael Matthews, Remco Evenepoel, Stephen Williams

* Stefan Küng, Sergio Higuita, Aleksandr Vlasov, Kasper Asgreen