Tour of Switzerland new dates

knedlicky

Tour of Switzerland next year between 11-19 August 2011, no more as preparation for TdF or conflicting with Dauphiné.

Stages:
1. Lugano - Lugano (prologue)
2. Airolo - Crans-Montana (mountain finish)
3. ? – Grindelwald
4. Grindelwald – Huttwil
5. Huttwil – Tägerschen
6. Tägerschen - Malbun (mountain finish)
7. Vaduz - Serfaus (mountain finish)
8. Tübach – Sciaffusa
9. Sciaffusa - Sciaffusa (TT)

calvjones

Given the lack of success of the Giro riders in 2010, this means 2011 Dauphine will be a full TdF roster.

afx237vi

Seems like an odd decision to me. June was perfect for a race like this... guaranteed to get a good field because of the proximity to the TDF.

August? Most of the big names are either winding their season down or taking a break before the Vuelta / Worlds.

Any reason given for the switch?

andyp

A retrograde step for the TDS? As afx says, it means the field will be weaker as most of the big names will be recovering after the Tour, on holiday or preparing for late season goals.

mididoctors

beats the tour of poland

iainf72

Could it be because ASO owns the Dauphine now?

Pross

Not the best of steps but as I'm intending being near the Italian / Swiss border around that time hopefully I'll get to see some live

afx237vi

mididoctors wrote:

beats the tour of poland

Not by much, though. I guess the mountains will still give it some appeal... but the Deutschland Tour was in August and had mountains and still couldn't escape that post-Tour fug that hangs over the cycling season in August.

term1te

There were a couple of articles in the local press saying that numbers of spectators were down this year. The local authority in Liestal, where two stages finished, was quoted as saying that they would never host the event again due to the losses they accrued. The world cup football and poor weather was blamed. Maybe the thinking is that during the holiday season they may attract more tourists/spectators?

Moomaloid

afx237vi wrote:

mididoctors wrote:

beats the tour of poland

Not by much, though. I guess the mountains will still give it some appeal... but the Deutschland Tour was in August and had mountains and still couldn't escape that post-Tour fug that hangs over the cycling season in August.

Wins for the scenery alone i reckon!

FJS

Very odd - Tour de Suisse didn't have that much competition in June, and this year had a great field with some top-level riders going for stages or the overall. In early August riders coming out of the Tour de France will not be overly motivated, while the others don't yet have the same form.
Only reason I can think of is commercially, with more people on holiday able to come out to watch; or, the planned move of another stage race with growth ambitions moving into June....

mididoctors

FJS wrote:

Very odd - Tour de Suisse didn't have that much competition in June, and this year had a great field with some top-level riders going for stages or the overall. In early August riders coming out of the Tour de France will not be overly motivated, while the others don't yet have the same form.
Only reason I can think of is commercially, with more people on holiday able to come out to watch; or, the planned move of another stage race with growth ambitions moving into June....

ToC?

sherer

seems strange to move it plus it is now very close to the Vuelta but not sure if this would really be a warm up to that event being a bit too close.

Maybe they could look into doing a Suisse Etape stage and try to get a few people out to ride a sportive in the hot summer months and watch the stage the next day.

Either that or they wanted Spartacus to win it again and wanted a weaker field

knedlicky

sherer wrote:

Maybe they could look into doing a Suisse Etape stage and try to get a few people out to ride a sportive in the hot summer months and watch the stage the next day.

The cyclosportives Alpenbrevet (start Meiringen) and Alpen-Challenge (start Lantsch nr. Lenzerheide) usually take place about the time of the new dates. As does a big off-road event at Grindelwald.
Go to any and you won’t be that far way from wherever the Tour de Suisse is going by.

freire

between 11-19 August? start on thursday and the last stage on friday? that must be a mistake


from the side of the TdS:

Die Tour de Suisse des nächsten Jahres findet vom 11. bis 19. Juni statt

http://www.tds.ch/tourdesuisse/generated/article/radsport/2010/06/20/12258700000.html

knedlicky

freire wrote:

between 11-19 August? start on thursday and the last stage on friday? that must be a mistake

Yes, does sound odd, but just checked my source and the info hasn't altered.

Kléber

August could be good, so long as June is rejigged to stop the Giro / Cali / Dauphiné overlaps.

Then the weekend after Switzerland they could hold the World Championships. If only!

lucybears

freire wrote:

between 11-19 August? start on thursday and the last stage on friday? that must be a mistake


from the side of the TdS:

Die Tour de Suisse des nächsten Jahres findet vom 11. bis 19. Juni statt

http://www.tds.ch/tourdesuisse/generated/article/radsport/2010/06/20/12258700000.html

seems they are not taking any notice....

schweiz

lucybears wrote:

freire wrote:

between 11-19 August? start on thursday and the last stage on friday? that must be a mistake


from the side of the TdS:

Die Tour de Suisse des nächsten Jahres findet vom 11. bis 19. Juni statt

http://www.tds.ch/tourdesuisse/generated/article/radsport/2010/06/20/12258700000.html

seems they are not taking any notice....

It's definitely June 11-19 not August.

Would love the stage to Grindelwald to include this:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=163285

I hope they get the permission to go over Grosse Scheidegg, the climb from Meiringen is awesome with a brutal calf busting 100m or so stretch in the middle [EDIT] 18% after 12.8km of climbing with still 5km to go.