PREVIEW | Tour de Suisse 2024 stage 4 - UAE big favourites to win on first mountain stage with high-altitude summit finish

The Tour de Suisse holds significant stature as one of the premier stage races of the year. Acting as the ultimate pre-Tour de France test, this eight-day event in Switzerland draws top Tour contenders. From June 9th to 16th, it encompasses challenging mountain stages, time trials, and opportunities for classics specialists. Let's preview stage 4 of this prestigious race.

The first of five mountain stages, all of which with summit finishes. The race becomes very long from now on, specially for those who are not climbers. The first stage is actually not too difficult. The day sees a small ascent of 5 kilometers opening up the day, but most of it is a flat day in the valleys of Switzerland. But this will change late in the day, quite significantly.

The riders go up from less than 500 meters of altitude to 2091 at the summit of the Passo San Gottardo. This will not be the famous cobbled climb, but it's opposite vertent. Harder or easier? I would say neither, it depends on how the peloton races it. Officially the climb could be said to be only 10 kilometers long, but in reality the entire final 34 kilometers are largely uphill.

Up to the town of Andermatt the riders face a difficult 8 kilometers at over 8%, the first 20 kilometers of the climb gently raise, before a couple of flat kilometers that antecede the actual ascent to San Gottardo.

This is 10.2 kilometers at 6.3%. Not a brutal climb, but the altitude factor definitely makes it more difficult. In this section it is a rather constant climb without flat sections until the very last meters that lead to the finish line.

The Weather

Prediction Tour de Suisse 2024 stage 3:

*** Adam Yates, Richard Carapaz
** João Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose, Lenny Martínez, Egan Bernal
* Tom Pidcock, Isaac Del Toro, Felix Gall, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Thibau Nys, Enric Mas, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Wout Poels, Alexey Lutsenko

Pick: Mattias Skjelmose