In a rather unusual reversal of a traditional stage race itinerary, this year’s Tour de Suisse will head up to the mountaintops before the sprinters get their chance to shine.

The Tour of Switzerland will kick off this year with an 8 km prologue on June 8 in Quinto, the organizers said as they revealed the route for this year’s race yesterday.

Whatever small gaps on GC that the prologue may have created, these are sure to be greatly exacerbated the following day as stage 1 sees the peloton cross the legendary Nufenenpass, which will constitute “the roof” of the Tour at 2.478 metres. Following a long descent, the field will ride across the Rhone valley before making its way to the mountaintop finish at Crans-Montana where the late Laurent Fignon won a Tour de France stage on his way to overall victory in 1984.

Stage 2 from Montreux to Meringen sees more action in the mountains as the riders will have to negotiate further climbs on the Lorette climb and the Hasliberg.

Stages 3 (Meringen-Buochs) and 4 (Buochs-Leuggern) are likely to be decided in bunch sprints, however.

The fifth stage (Leuggern-Meilen) may offer more chances of a successful breakaway, but yet another bunch sprint may well be on the cards.

According to the organizers the 206 km 6th stage is this year’s queen stage. At 2.315 metres the Albulapass represents a serious challenge for the riders before a darting 11 km descent at an average of 6, 9% takes them to the finish in La Punt.

Yet another mountain, the Julierpass at 2.284 metres, awaits the field on the penultimate stage but coming a long way out from the finish in Bad Ragaz, the climb is unlikely to influence the outcome of the stage. The 3rd category climb, St. Luzisteig, at 6 km from the finish line, may pose problems for the sprinters though.

The battle for overall victory is likely to remain unresolved until the individual time trial on the last stage from Bad Ragaz to the mountaintop finish at Flumserberg. Thus, the riders will have to absorb an elevation gain of approximately 950 metres during the final 10 km of a very mountainous race which sees the peloton negotiate around 15.000 height metres over 1.318 km in their quest for the successor to last year’s winner, Rui Costa (Movistar).