All eyes will be on Tour de Suisse pre-race favourite 2024 runner-up João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to take control of the eight-day stage race, especially after his overall victories at the Tour de Romandie and Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year. However, the Israel-Premier Tech squad is counting on their climbers, Matthew Riccitello and Mike Woods, taking advantage of a potentially unpredictable race.
While this year’s route will still challenge the riders with over 20,000 metres of climbing, there are no high-altitude major mountain summits. Instead, the challenge lies in the relentless succession of climbs and a demanding mountain time trial that will close out the eight-day race.
“It feels like this is a different edition of Suisse,” Israel-Premier Tech sports director Pat McCarty said in a team release. “There are a lot of in-between days: there are a number of stages where, depending who’s in control and the race dynamic, things could get out of hand. The GC days aren’t too crazy, either – there are short, steep climbs, but not too many long, back-to-back mountains.”
In 2024, Riccitello (23) claimed his best WorldTour GC result with a fifth place overall, 3:31 down from winner Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates). This year, the young American impressed at the Tour of the Alps where he ultimately finished ninth on GC.
“I’m looking forward to going back to Suisse this year,” said Riccitello, who claimed two top-five finishes at last year’s race. “It’s a race I really enjoy. It will be hard racing – I think a lot will be decided on the last day TT.
“Training has gone well and I’m feeling good ahead of the second part of the season. I’ll be aiming for the best result possible in the general classification. We’ve got a strong team and can look to be in the mix every day.”
The Tour de Suisse will mark Woods’ return to racing, following the injury he sustained at Milano–Torino in March, where the Canadian road champion suffered a non-displaced fracture of his left clavicle.
“I think it will be an exciting race, and we have a good team for it. Woodsy and Riccitello are both going well. But we also have ambitions across several stages, starting on the opening day, where the category two climb late will be really interesting,” McCarty added.
The Tour de Suisse opener features a 127.2km stage around Küssnacht, made up of two loops—one flat and one marked by the tough ascent to the Michaelskreuz Chapel. The peloton will take on the climb twice: first with 105km to go, and again just 15km from the finish.
“Stage 5 looks like being the first GC day on paper, and the stage 8 time trial is really good for Matthew.”
McCarty also pointed out that the middle stages, 2, 3, 4 and 6, could be “really interesting” depending on how the race unfolds.
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