The five-day-long Tour de Suisse concluded at the weekend with world champion winners in both the men’s and women’s races, courtesy of men’s road champion Tadej Pogačar and women’s TT champ Marlen Reusser taking the GC crowns on Sunday.
That means we’ve now seen the last block of WorldTour racing before the pros head back to their homelands for the National Championships, to altitude, or to the Tour de France. For the men, there’s just less than a fortnight to go until the Tour gets underway in Barcelona, while the women still have a month to make their final preparations in place for their Grand Départ in Switzerland.
Now that the final warmup race is out of the way, let’s reflect on the week. Who were the winners and losers from this year’s Tour de Suisse?
Winner: Mathias Vacek
If you told me a week ago that Mathias Vacek would end up on the final podium of this race, I would have begged your pardon.
Vacek is 75kg, described as a rouleur, and has never finished inside the top ten of a WorldTour stage race’s overall standings before. Yet, here we are. Vacek comfortably finished in third place at the Tour de Suisse, and he thoroughly deserved it. The Czech engine rolled with the punches throughout the week, with particular highlights coming in the first two stages.
Nevertheless, the Lidl-Trek rider seems to be alive and kicking after an underwhelming spring campaign. His TT legs have been proven here, as is his surprising level in the mountains. In that regard, I reckon he’s fit enough to play a big role in the upcoming Tour de France. Just cast your minds back to his Grand Tour debut at the 2025 Giro, when he supported Mads Pedersen’s dominant maglia ciclamino campaign. Chances are, the Czech rider could do the same at this year’s Tour.
Winners: UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Low-hanging fruit alert, but Tadej Pogačar is a winner. He won the race overall, with three stage wins and five days in yellow to show for it. There was barely any contest in the GC for him, which I guess this was expected, but the Slovenian has been bold enough to say he’s ‘better than ever’ ahead of his bid for a record-equalling fifth Tour win.
Pogačar aside, I’d like to highlight UAE Team Emirates XRG for their performances against the clock on Stage 4. The team placed three riders inside the top six on the day, with Tim Wellens and Felix Grossschartner proving to be in great shape on the TT bike. With the Tour de France set to start with a team time-trial on day one, the reigning champion’s team has shown that they could be considered favourites for the race’s first maillot jaune. This change in tone is in stark contrast to the pretty bleak TTT performance at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, which featured fewer of the squad’s Tour lineup in fairness.
Otherwise, UAE performed solidly throughout the Tour de Suisse. Brandon McNulty is ready to play lieutenant again, and Nils Politt appears to be gearing up for another big shift as domestique. Given Visma’s recent strength ahead of the Tour, with young Italian climber Davide Piganzoli drafted in at the last minute, it’ll be a big boost for UAE to feel in control.
Winner: Cédrine Kerbaol
Cédrine Kerbaol has been one of the most fascinating riders to watch in recent years. She went from breakaway extraordinaire and descending expert to a genuine GC contender. The latter seemed to be emphasised the most over the past week, with an impressive second-place finish in the women’s race.
That runners-up spot was well deserved for Kerbaol; she was animated all week, resulting in consistently strong placings including tenth place in the time-trial, which moved her onto the GC podium after bettering some big GC names, including Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, who is lucky to escape the losers section of this list after her poor TT.
Nevertheless, this Tour de Suisse performance is sure to give Kerbaol some confidence coming into the Tour de France Femmes. Her style of racing should suit this year’s parcours, which features several punchy finishes like the ones she thrived on in Switzerland last week. After confirming her form against the clock here, Kerbaol shouldn’t be afraid of the Tour’s hefty amount of TT kilometres.
The Frenchwoman looks strong enough to make the podium of a Grand Tour. Now seems like a good time to prove it.
Winner: Mathieu van der Poel
Mathieu van der Poel is another rider who has spent the past two months away from racing. Rightly so, given his omnipresence throughout the cobbled Classics.
On return, the Dutch rider looks strong. Specifically, his time-trial on Stage 4 was a real sign of strength, coming within 0.04 seconds of stage winner Tadej Pogačar. That raw power against the clock demonstrates that he’s going in the right direction in terms of fitness. With a punchy finale to Stage 2 at the Tour de France, this might also be an indicator that he’s trying to peak for that opening weekend in Barcelona.
Pair up this form with Jasper Philipsen’s – who’s fresh off a strong performance at the Baloise Belgium Tour – and I think we could be in for another strong showing for Alpecin-Premier Tech in the sprints at this year’s Tour.
Loser: Primož Roglič
Primož Roglič won’t be going to the Tour de France next month, which gives him somewhat of a hall pass here, but I’m still disappointed in the Slovenian’s form.
Roglič’s Tour de Suisse ended in an uninteresting eighth place. Fair enough, he reached the top ten overall, but this is a guy who used to be a consistent force in week-long stage races. Not just that, he’s someone who has an Olympic time-trial title to his name. That makes his 12th place on Stage 4’s TT harder to justify.
As I said, Roglič won’t be going to the Tour, so there’s less pressure on him at this time of year, however he’s just come off a long altitude camp up in the Sierra Nevada with the likes of Florian Lipowitz, who won the Tour of Slovenia last week and is expected to be in the fight for another podium finish at the Tour.
For Roglič, the week can only be read as disappointing. His contract expires this year too, so it isn’t a great billboard for interested parties. I mean, are there any teams willing to take him on as a confident pick for GC leader? I doubt it.
Loser: All those in Swiss A&E
It was a Tour de Suisse filled with crashes, though more so for the women than the men, who seemed to have been extra cautious with the Tour de France fast approaching.
Urška Žigart was the most high-profile rider to take a spill last week. She suffered a nasty fall while crossing a traffic bump, resulting in a fractured jaw. That should see her out of the Tour de France Femmes, and it’s even brought her partner Tadej Pogačar out of his pre-Tour altitude camp to go back home.
FDJ United-Suez’s Lauren Dickson also crashed on Stage 3 and has been diagnosed with a fractured collarbone.
It’s a real shame for the Scottish rider, who had been in flying form over the past few months. Not least in this race, where she sat in second place in the GC standings before having to abandon. This means that Dickson will be sidelined for the next few weeks, ruling her out of the British National Championships, where she would have started as the favourite for the road race title. A Tour inclusion seemed likely too after her stellar job on behalf of Demi Vollering at the Giro d’Italia. Alas, she’ll likely be watching her teammates on TV rather than from within the bunch.
Loser: Matthew Brennan
After a blistering debut season on the WorldTour level in 2025, Britain’s Matthew Brennan hasn’t looked quite as ferocious for much of 2026.
Sure, he got his season off to a winning start at the Tour Down Under and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, but his results since haven’t been all that impressive for a man who was expected to be the second coming of Wout van Aert. Since that win in Kuurne, the Brit hasn’t challenged for any big wins, with the only victories to have fallen his way at the Flèche du Sud, a race he competed at on behalf of Visma’s development squad.
At the Tour de Suisse, Brennan looked blunt. He managed to get his best result on Stage 3, but even that was an 11th place on the day. Apart from that, he left the Tour de Suisse without touching the top 50. In fairness, there were only two or three stages that suited him, but his form seems quite under par at the moment, despite the British National Road Championships in Wales next weekend.
Loser: Elisa Longo Borghini
While it feels harsh to place a stage winner on this list, Elisa Longo Borghini’s performance at the Tour de Suisse left me scratching my head.
After her stage win on the second day, she sailed into yellow and looked entirely comfortable, only to experience a cataclysmic crumble on the final stage.
A ten-minute time loss in the mountains may have the team wondering whether she can do the job on GC at the Tour. Teammate and Vuelta winner Paula Blasi is now being touted to be heading to the Tour after winning the overall title at the Volta a Catalunya last weekend. I don’t blame UAE Team ADQ either. Since Blasi’s breakthrough Vuelta win, she’s looked unbelievably strong – and confident too. Given Longo Borghini’s showing in Switzerland, I reckon the Catalan rider could be the team’s best shot at reaching the podium.