Tour de Suisse 2017: Favourites

[Article was written before the start of the Tour de Suisse and has not been updated.]

Tom Dumoulin, the latest winner of a Grand Tour and still only 26-year old, is headlining the Tour de Suisse. The course should suit him. Just like the Giro d’Italia the route takes in tough climbs alongside a substantial amount of ITT kilometres. The Dutchman faces competition by a number of riders who were also competing the Giro – Pozzovivo, Kruijswijk, Costa – and the winners of the last two editions of the Tour de Suisse: Miguel Ángel López and Simon Špilak. Title defender López has not raced since Il Lombardia last October and it took months to fully recover from a broken tibia he suffered in November. So one may wonder if the Colombian climber will be ready to fight for the leaders jersey. On the other hand, the race suits him. In 2015, still only 21-year old, he finished in seventh before powering to glory in 2016.

By the way, the winners of last five edition are riding in Switzerland, as Rui Costa took back-two-back wins in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The GC of the Tour de Suisse probably will come down to three races in the high mountains – stage 4, stage 6 and stage 7 – and the hilly ITT of almost 30 kilometres on the last day.

Favourites Tour de Suisse 2017

*** Tom Dumoulin, Ion Izagirre, Rui Costa, Simon Spilak
** Domenico Pozzovivo, Steven Kruijswijk, Miguel Ángel López, Rohan Dennis
* Marc Soler, Carlos Betancur, Sébastien Reichenbach, Jarlinson Pantano, Mathias Frank, Tejay van Garderen