It's Time for Tour de Suisse

Tour de Suisse -Dieter Schütz / pixelio.de

Cycling is a very popular leisure activity in Switzerland. Almost every Swiss person owns a bicycle of some sort - some a very fancy racing bike and some an old squeaking city bike. There are hundreds of bicycle trails all over Switzerland including downhill slopes, nationwide tracks (e.g. from St. Gallen to Geneva) that you can cycle over several days, or regional tracks like the one around lake Zurich.

The Tour de Suisse

Once a year, cycling in Switzerland attracts even international attention. The annual Tour de Suisse is one of professional cycling's most famous tours. After the all-famous Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and the Spanish Vuelta, the Tour de Suisse is probably one of the more popular and prestigious tours in the cycling calendar and part of the official UCI World Tour.

History of the Tour de Suisse

The first Tour de Suisse took place in 1933 with an Austrian winner. The tour became an annual fixture and with the exception of the years during WWII has always been carried out. Winners of the Tour de Suisse include illustrious names (of the cycling world) such as: Ferdy Kübler, Lance Armstrong (although doped), Fabian Cancellara and Levi Leipheimer.

This Year's Tour de Suisse

This year's Tour de Suisse will be the 77th tour and it will take place from June 5th - June 14h 2020. The different stages and the exact route of this year's event will be published on the official Tour de Suisse Website soon. And if you can't go watch it on the streets, Swiss Television is providing live coverage of most of the tour.

© 2013 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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