Tour de Suisse

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The Tour de Suisse is the largest cycling tour in Switzerland . It takes place every year in mid-June and is the most important stage race (9 stages) in cycling below the “Big Three” Tour de France , Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España . The tour was part of the UCI ProTour launched in 2005 , a series of the most important cycling races of the year. Since 2011 the race has been part of the successor series UCI WorldTour .

It is divided into nine stages, including mostly a prologue , several mountain stages and a time trial . The Tour de Suisse is used by many riders as the final preparation for the Tour de France , which traditionally begins two weeks later . Teams of the 1st and 2nd category are allowed. The leader in the overall standings wears the “golden jersey”.

history

On the 25th birthday of the Swiss Cyclists and Motorcyclists Association (SRB) in 1908, the association tried to establish a race. After two events, the one-day race of over 300 kilometers was discontinued. Another attempt to establish a major cycling race in Switzerland was the long-distance journey from Munich to Zurich , which was discontinued in 1924 because of the high costs. With the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia as models, the then director of the SRB Xaver Marzohl finally tried to organize a stage race.

The first Tour de Suisse finally took place in 1933 for the 50th anniversary of the SRB. The winner of the five-stage tour was the Austrian Max Bulla . Since then, numerous famous riders have won the tour. Behind the four-time overall and thus record winner Pasquale Fornara follow Ferdy Kübler , Hugo Koblet and Rui Costa with three successes each. Gino Bartali , Hennes Junkermann , Beat Breu and Simon Špilak each won the tour twice.

The Tour de Suisse has been organized by the IMG company since 1999 . For several years, the former Swiss cyclist Armin Meier was director of the tour. Most recently it was organized by a team made up of the former track cyclist Kurt Betschart , Rolf Husar and Louis Schumann. In 2014, the collaboration between IMG and the Swiss Cycling Association , which holds the rights to the tour, ended.

The rights were then given to the InfrontRingier agency . A new strategy was to "increase the presence of the Tour de Suisse, increase identification of the venues and involve the spectators more intensively". Several stages will be held in the same region on the start and finish weekends. The General Director of the Tour de Suisse was Olivier Senn from Gansingen until July 2018. Since then, the team of three Kurt Betschart (technology), David Loosli (sport) and Célina Rovescala (commerce) have been in charge, while Loosli represents the tour externally as primus inter pares.

The Tour de Suisse has developed into a commercial enterprise over the years. So she had z. B. in 2002 a budget of 5.5 million Swiss francs . The prize money awarded to the drivers made up a relatively small share of the budget at 271,062 francs, for the overall victory there was a bonus of 15,000 francs, the mountain award winners and winners of the points classification each received 4,000 francs, stage wins were rewarded with 3,242 francs. More than 300 people were involved in the race organization.

There will be no Tour de Suisse in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Instead, the digital version " The Digital Swiss 5 " was held from April 22nd , with 57 drivers at the start.

Winners list

  1. ↑ Jan Ullrich's results from May 1, 2005 until the end of his career were revoked on February 9, 2012 by the International Sports Court .
  2. ^ The results of Lance Armstrong from 1998 to 2005 inclusive were withdrawn by the UCI on October 22, 2012 .

  • The field of participants in the Tour de Suisse 2012

  • Tour de Suisse 2012

  • Tour de Suisse 2012

  • Tour de Suisse 2012

  • Tour security vehicles

  • The broom wagon

Tour-de-suisse peloton.jpg

literature

Web links

Commons : Tour de Suisse  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Schnyder (Ed.): Tour de Suisse: 75 years; 1933-2008 . AS Verlag, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-909111-53-4 , p. 14-19 .
  2. ↑ Tour de Suisse.ch: Organigram ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tds.ch
  3. ↑ Organization chart. (No longer available online.) Tour de Suisse, archived from the original on July 12, 2014 ; Retrieved June 26, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tourdesuisse.ch
  4. ↑ Swiss Cycling thanks IMG for the last 15 years. Swiss Cycling, accessed June 26, 2014 .
  5. ↑ New concept for Tour de Suisse. SRF, April 10, 2014, accessed June 26, 2014 .
  6. ^ IMG Suisse SA (Ed.): Tour de Suisse 2002. Documentation . Hauterive 2002, p. 22-24, 111-112 .
  7. ↑ The Tour de Suisse has been canceled, the football championship is about to be canceled in Belgium, and the English football professionals do not want any wage cuts - this is how the sport deals with the corona virus. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 3, 2020, accessed on April 3, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
  8. ↑ Ralf Meile: Finally live sport again! The most important facts about the digital Tour de Suisse. In: watson.ch. June 23, 2019, accessed April 23, 2020 .