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This Saturday marks the start of the Tour de Suisse Women, which will coincide with the last two stages of its male counterpart, the Tour de Suisse, over the weekend. The women's race, which was first held in 2021 as a 2.1 race, became part of the women's ProSeries the following year. This season, for the second consecutive year, the race is moving up in level and joining the Women's WorldTour, the highest race category in world cycling.

Route

The race consists of four stages. The first one takes place on three laps on a 19-km local circuit, making it one of the shortest road stages in the 2023 UCI Women's WorldTour. The circuit includes the climb to Burgstrasse (0.6 km at 8.2%), which could prevent a sprint finish. On the second day, the 26 km-ITT shares the route with the last stage of the men's Tour de Suisse and could create significant differences in the general classification, that will likely be difficult to recover in stages 3 and 4, which present medium mountain profiles.

Favorites

Without obvious sprint stages, the contenders for victories should be found among classics riders and time trialists who can handle short climbs.

Local cyclist Marlen Reusser (1000) is undoubtedly the top favorite to dominate the race. Her teammate at SD Worx, Demi Vollering (1200), is the strongest cyclist at present and is also a strong candidate for the general classification, although it seems that this time she will play a supporting role for Reusser.

Other contenders for stage wins or a good GC performance are Elise Chabbey (1000), Elisa Longo Borghini (1200) (800), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (1000), Juliette Labous (1000), Alexandra Manly (800), Marta Bastianelli (800), Pauliena Rooijakkers (600), Elisabeth Deignan (400), Olivia Baril (200), and Anna Kiesenhofer (200).

Photo: Tour de Suisse Women