Preview: Tour de Suisse. Hills, Alps and fireworks to be had in a week-long carnage stage-race

From the 12th to the 19th of June the World Tour peloton will have it's final preparation race before the Tour de France. Running at the same time as the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Tour de Suisse has tough competition, but every years the eight-stage race sees premier startlist and this year is no exception.

The race will be split into two halves, as the first five stages all contain hilly terrain and the last three will be decisive for the overall classification. Everyday can be important though, as right from day one the riders will face some tough hills, and all throughout the first four stages there will be obstacles to tackle. In some there will be reduced bunch sprints, others breakaways, and GC attacks can be expected too... Very chaotic and unpredictable racing to follow.

On the fifth day of racing the battle can spark, on the hills of southern Switzerland next to Italy where it will be a very treacherous day with more opportunities for raids to succeed. On stage six the race will take a turn into the mountains, with what may be considered the queen stage as the riders will go up the Nufenenpass and the Moosalp, two long ascents with harsh gradient and a lot of altitude involved aswell.

The seventh day of racing will see the riders ride up the long Lukmanierpass, but the day is to be decided late in the day in the summit finish at Malbun. The finale will be in Liechenstein where the race will be concluded, with the final day time-trial having 25 kilometers in length to wrap up the race and the overall classification.

The final startlist includes: Adam Yates, Daniel Martínez, Tom Pidcock, Geraint Thomas, Dylan van Baarle, Benoît Cosnefroy, Alexey Lutsenko, Gino Mäder, Michael Matthews, Aleksandr Vlasov, Sergio Higuita, Max Schachmann, Ion Izagirre, Bryan Coquard, Soren Kragh Andersen, Thymen Arensman, Rigoberto Uran, Hugh Carthy, Neilson Powless, Thibaut Pinot, Stefan Küng, Alexander Kristoff, Domenico Pozzovivo, Jakob Fuglsang, Patrick Bevin, Rohan Dennis, Sepp Kuss, Alex Aranburu, Remco Evenepoel, Kasper Asgreen, Marc Hirschi, Alessandro Covi, Marc Soler, Matteo Trentin, Jay Vine, Peter Sagan, Anthony Turgis and Quinn Simmons.

CyclingUpToDate prediction:

**** Daniel Martínez

*** Aleksandr Vlasov, Remco Evenepoel

** Jakob Fuglsang, Adam Yates, Gino Mäder

* Ion Izagirre, Sergio Higuita, Jay Vine, Rohan Dennis