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Due to the death of Gino Mäder, stage 6 was cancelled. The professionals at the Tour de Suisse will set off on a funeral ride from the actual finish in Oberwil-Lieli on Friday. Mäder's team announced its withdrawal from the preparatory race for the Tour de France.
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The finish of the fifth stage is the starting point of stage 6. And just like La Punt, the Albula Pass also plays a role again. Its summit is reached after just under nine kilometres and the climb starts right from the start. However, this time the Albula Pass is ridden from the opposite direction to the previous day, making it less difficult and only rated as a one compared to the previous day.
The route continues in a north-westerly direction towards Lenzerheide, before crossing a category 2 mountain. The Tour de Suisse then leaves the Alps and the profile flattens out - apart from a short category 3 climb - up to kilometre 160. Along the shores of Lake Zurich, the flat becomes another classic profile for the last 55 kilometres, on which the sprint for the bonus seconds is held first, followed shortly afterwards by the sprint for the points.
Nine kilometres before the finish, the ascent in Islisberg (3rd category) is the penultimate difficulty of the day: only 1800 metres long, but up to 14 per cent steep. Once it has been conquered, it's downhill to the 2.5 kilometre mark before the finish. And then uphill again to Oberwil-Lieli, briefly at up to 14 per cent. The last 500 metres climb at six per cent.
Sporting assessment of the 6th stage
The biggest difficulties are dealt with after 50 kilometres, at the end it gets undulating again. Sounds like a stage made for breakaways. In this case, the Swiss with Silvain Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) or Mauro Schmid (Soudal - Quick Step) have a say in the matter.
The other case is called Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). He and his strong team can be trusted to catch any breakaways in the undulating finale and to win the stage in the uphill sprint. In any case, the stage should hardly play a role in the overall classification.
Schedule, TV coverage & live stream of stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse 2023
The stage starts at 10:48 am. With expected average speeds of 37 to 41 km/h, the riders should arrive in Oberwil-Lieli between 16:03 and 16:37.
The Tour de Suisse will not be shown on German television. In Switzerland, however, the channel SRF 2 will broadcast the 6th stage live from 14:20. At this time, the paid live streams from GCN+, Discovery+ and thus also Eurosport will also join the programme.
Tour de Suisse - Stage 6: The most important information at a glance
- Mountain stage with uphill finish over 215.3 kilometres
- Start of the stage: 12:30 pm
- Estimated arrival time: between 16:03 and 16:37
- TV broadcast: in Switzerland on SRF 2 from 14:20
- Live stream: GCN+, Discovery+ and Eurosport from 14:20
