Will the Tour of Switzerland ever be ?

[masking_agent]

Hi All,
For as long as I can remember , the Tour of Switzerland has been relatively easy for pro tour riders. I never seem to understand this as the country has a lot of mountains with steep climbs..

Has there ever been a year where it was gruelling with killer climbs ?

Will there ever be a gruelling route that will have killer climbs with MTF's similar to Spanish race organizers ?

 

[Velolover2]

Ever heard about Rettenbachgletscher?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If Killian Frankiny becomes a bigger star than Stefan Küng, the Tour de Suisse will get harder.

 

[Escarabajo]

You are confusing a hard route versus quality of the competition.

I have seen hard stages over the years at the Tour de Suisse.

 

[Velolover2]

Last year had some epic stages.

The wet Albulapass descent in pouring rain + the brutal climb through the Tiefenbachgletscher rock tunnel.

What more do people want?

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

I think there is some rhyme and reason to not making the minor races crazy hard.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

I think there is some rhyme and reason to not making the minor races crazy hard.

Yes, so they can be used for prep...in a way that's sad.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

In 2016 they had three mountain stages in a row with average speed of 34 km/h. How is that not hard enough? Lopez final speed was 37 km/h overall after 9 stages.

 

[Gigs_98]

I think one could actually argue the tds is too hard. The field for this race is not what it should be considering the races rich history and the main reason for that is it's difficulty. Right now everyone who is serious about winning the tour has two other preparation races which are better suited for that.
To be honest I don't want the race to become really easy since that would be a waste of Switzerland but I think two hard mountain stages would be enough and it definitely shouldn't become harder than it already is. However if the tds date would change, I'm perfectly fine with a super hard route

 

[Valv.Piti]

In 2016 they had three mountain stages in a row with average speed of 34 km/h. How is that not hard enough? Lopez final speed was 37 km/h overall after 9 stages.

Yeah, 2016 was a super hard route and coupled with the very bad conditions was an extremely hard race which clearly took it toll on a few riders who would have been better off with Dauphine.

I would have no problem with, however, if you just scratched the thinking that because the race its scheduled where it is it doesn't need to be super hard. How about just promoting the race as the 4th GT and make crazy hard stages?!

 

[46&twoWheels]

what I think OP wants to say is,in other words: the Swiss Alps are wasted when they could be the battlefield of epic races , and the Austrian side of the alps too.
I mean, if you want to do an all-mountains tour de force there are no better countries than those two. Unfortunately the physiognomy of the land doesn't allow a balanced, 3 weeks tour.

 

[VO2 Max]

what I think OP wants to say is,in other words: the Swiss Alps are wasted when they could be the battlefield of epic races , and the Austrian side of the alps too.
I mean, if you want to do an all-mountains tour de force there are no better countries than those two. Unfortunately the physiognomy of the land doesn't allow a balanced, 3 weeks tour.

Yes, it would need to be a proper deutschsprachigestour with enough of the flat land and medium mountains of Germany to balance some proper mountain epics across CH/FL/AT and Südtirol (and also the possibility for excursions to parts of eastern-central Europe that are outside the normal reach of grand tours). But there's a relatively short season for reliably taking bike races above 2000m of altitude and it's pretty full, we already see the Tour of Austria run simultaneously with the Tour de France.

 

[May0maniac]

I think one could actually argue the tds is too hard. The field for this race is not what it should be considering the races rich history and the main reason for that is it's difficulty. Right now everyone who is serious about winning the tour has two other preparation races which are better suited for that.
To be honest I don't want the race to become really easy since that would be a waste of Switzerland but I think two hard mountain stages would be enough and it definitely shouldn't become harder than it already is. However if the tds date would change, I'm perfectly fine with a super hard route

I think that the fact that the Tour will start one week later will help them a lot, so guys could try to win thee TdS and still have the same amount of rest that you usually have between the Dauphine and the Tour.

 

[Gigs_98]

what I think OP wants to say is,in other words: the Swiss Alps are wasted when they could be the battlefield of epic races , and the Austrian side of the alps too.
I mean, if you want to do an all-mountains tour de force there are no better countries than those two. Unfortunately the physiognomy of the land doesn't allow a balanced, 3 weeks tour.

Yes, it would need to be a proper deutschsprachigestour with enough of the flat land and medium mountains of Germany to balance some proper mountain epics across CH/FL/AT and Südtirol (and also the possibility for excursions to parts of eastern-central Europe that are outside the normal reach of grand tours). But there's a relatively short season for reliably taking bike races above 2000m of altitude and it's pretty full, we already see the Tour of Austria run simultaneously with the Tour de France.

If there will ever be a fourth gt I'd want it to be exactly that. I have actually posted two tours which go through these three countries in the race design thread and I don't think I ever had more fun putting together a route. There is just so ridiculously much unexplored potential in the alps which we'll probably never see in a cycling race

 

[VO2 Max]

what I think OP wants to say is,in other words: the Swiss Alps are wasted when they could be the battlefield of epic races , and the Austrian side of the alps too.
I mean, if you want to do an all-mountains tour de force there are no better countries than those two. Unfortunately the physiognomy of the land doesn't allow a balanced, 3 weeks tour.

Yes, it would need to be a proper deutschsprachigestour with enough of the flat land and medium mountains of Germany to balance some proper mountain epics across CH/FL/AT and Südtirol (and also the possibility for excursions to parts of eastern-central Europe that are outside the normal reach of grand tours). But there's a relatively short season for reliably taking bike races above 2000m of altitude and it's pretty full, we already see the Tour of Austria run simultaneously with the Tour de France.

If there will ever be a fourth gt I'd want it to be exactly that. I have actually posted two tours which go through these three countries in the race design thread and I don't think I ever had more fun putting together a route. There is just so ridiculously much unexplored potential in the alps which we'll probably never see in a cycling race

I was just thinking it would be perfect for that thread, but I only drop by there occasionally to look at the pictures.

I was in Feldberg in 2005 by coincidence a few weeks after the D-Tour finished a stage there and it seemed that race could really have built into something huge, lots of support and enthusiasm from the locals. But we know what happened the following July and the mood was very different for a bit.

 

[jsem94]

A fourth GT will never happen unless the Vuelta folds or something. Unfortunately.

 

[spiritualride]

I remember in the 00s, a grand tour winning doper said they regretted riding the tour d Suisse because it was too hard for their tdf prep

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

A fourth GT will never happen unless the Vuelta folds or something. Unfortunately.

84 cycling days solely dedicated to Grand Tours seem a bit too many.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

A fourth GT will never happen unless the Vuelta folds or something. Unfortunately.

At which point it wouldn't be a fourth GT...

 

[jsem94]

Re: Re:

A fourth GT will never happen unless the Vuelta folds or something. Unfortunately.

At which point it wouldn't be a fourth GT...

True. I would be OK with a Swiss GT though, or a greater German-speaking GT. If they could fit it in somewhere that is.

 

[movingtarget]

In 2016 they had three mountain stages in a row with average speed of 34 km/h. How is that not hard enough? Lopez final speed was 37 km/h overall after 9 stages.

Generally it's not like that. If Cancellara can win the race it can't be too mountainous generally. Other riders have also done well that are not regarded as great climbers.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

A fourth GT will never happen unless the Vuelta folds or something. Unfortunately.

Yeah can't see it happening and teams won't want to do it with their best riders. I still think with a bit of tweaking it could be better. The Dauphine is not that interesting these days either route wise. They have their Tour preview stages and last year had the Mount Chat descent but the race is not as difficult as it used to be and many riders would prefer it that way before the Tour anyway.

 

[46&twoWheels]

what I think OP wants to say is,in other words: the Swiss Alps are wasted when they could be the battlefield of epic races , and the Austrian side of the alps too.
I mean, if you want to do an all-mountains tour de force there are no better countries than those two. Unfortunately the physiognomy of the land doesn't allow a balanced, 3 weeks tour.

Yes, it would need to be a proper deutschsprachigestour with enough of the flat land and medium mountains of Germany to balance some proper mountain epics across CH/FL/AT and Südtirol (and also the possibility for excursions to parts of eastern-central Europe that are outside the normal reach of grand tours). But there's a relatively short season for reliably taking bike races above 2000m of altitude and it's pretty full, we already see the Tour of Austria run simultaneously with the Tour de France.

If there will ever be a fourth gt I'd want it to be exactly that. I have actually posted two tours which go through these three countries in the race design thread and I don't think I ever had more fun putting together a route. There is just so ridiculously much unexplored potential in the alps which we'll probably never see in a cycling race

amazing. There's so much unexplored potential. I'm going to search for your post. You made me curious Of course,we all know that mountains doesn't equal appropriate roads or feasible "itinerary"
As Vo2Max hinted: For example the München-Bolzano corridor (crossing the Brennero) is a probably a perfect semi-flat(?) stage from a pure geographical POV but who knows if appropriate regional roads are available..Niederösterreich also offers amazing sights and a lot of flat coasting the danube (well I'm sure you can give us a lecture )

 

[SHAD0W93]

Didn't this used to be regarded as the fourth grand tour?

 

[WheelofGear]

The racing there is better than the most one-week races.

Maybe it has something to do with the big guys skipping the race. No dominant rider.