PREVIEW | Tour de Suisse 2024 stage 1 - Michael Matthews and Arnaud De Lie among big favourites for hilly day

The Tour de Suisse stands as one of the pivotal stage races of the year, serving as the ultimate test ahead of the Tour de France. Held over eight days from June 9th to 16th, it attracts several stars of the Tour, offering a challenging route with mountainous terrain, time trials, and stages tailored for classics specialists. Let's delve into a preview of stage 1.

The first road stage. I would dare to say this is the 'easiest' day of the race outside of the time-trials, but it is still a difficult one. This year the race organizers have completely shut off the door to the sprinters who are using other races to prepare the Tour de France, and are instead focusing on bringing in quality climbers and classics specialists. The latter will like this day, which consists of 178 kilometers into Regensdorf.

The day features two categorized climbs in it's first half and generally speaking, a rolling day with plenty small hills scattered all throughout the stage. But all eyes will be on the final climb and kilometers. Into Regensberg there could certainly be attacks, perhaps even the one that ends up deciding the stage. The climb is 2.2 kilometers long at 7.6%, hard enough for the GC riders to make a move, but 'gentle' enough that plenty puncheurs or classics riders, maybe even some sprinters can survive and then fight for the win in more favourable terrain.

The climb summits with 11 kilometers to go and then the peloton finds a few fast downhill kilometers. The final 5 kilometers give some chance of everything coming back together for a small peloton sprint, although these are technical. Positioning will also be key since there is a 90-degree corner right in the final few hundred meters of the stage.

The Weather

Prediction Tour de Suisse 2024 stage 1:

*** Maxim van Gils, Michael Matthews
** Arnaud De Lie, Thibau Nys, Axel Laurance
* Marijn van den Berg, Ethan Hayter, Bryan Coquard, Stephen Williams, Marc Hirschi, Tom Pidcock, Finn Fisher-Black, Mattias Skjelmose, Richard Carapaz

Pick: Maxim van Gils