The race enters the Alps in the Tour de Suisse, with a violent mountainous stage that is set to make serious differences and define the general classification. The start will take place in Locarno and will be completely flat, as the race heads towards the first pass.
This can be a crucial day for the overall classification, as it will see the riders finally head into the long ascents, a terrain which will present different difficulties and can create larger gaps.
Before the categorized ascent itself the riders will climb around 1000 meters, however then they find 13.6 kilometers at 7.8%. The summit comes at almost 2500 meters of altitude and 86.5 kilometers to go. A long descent will follow back again into the Rhône valley, and into the final ascent.
In the profile it doesn’t look harder than the Nufenenpass, however it is the case. The Moosalp is 17.8 kilometers in length and has 7.9% average gradient and is a climb that features tough gradients right from the base. There is no rest, it’s a very long ascent that will see the riders test their full climbing capabilities.
CyclingUpToDate prediction:
**** Aleksandr Vlasov
*** Remco Evenepoel, Sergio Higuita
** Daniel Martínez, Jakob Fuglsang, Domenico Pozzovivo
* Hugh Carthy, Geraint Thomas, Thibaut Pinot, Alexey Lutsenko