The 2015 Tour de Suisse was the 79th edition of the Tour de Suisse stage race. It took place from 13 to 21 June and was the seventeenth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. It started in Risch-Rotkreuz and finished in Bern. The race was composed of nine stages including two time trials, a short one on the first day and a long one on the last day. The event covered , and visited Liechtenstein and Austria on its fifth stage, which was the race's sole mountaintop finish.
The winner of the general classification was Slovenian Simon Špilak of , who won the race by a margin of only five seconds from Great Britain's Geraint Thomas (). The ultimate selection was made on the last day's individual time trial. Tom Dumoulin of the squad rounded up the podium, having won the two individual time trial stages that bookended the race.
The mountains classification was initially awarded to Austria's Stefan Denifl (), who featured in many breakaways to amass his points. Denifl was later disqualified following his suspension for doping in 2019. The sprints classification was won by Slovakian Peter Sagan () who also was the victor of two stages. Team Sky finished at the head of the team classification with a margin of 11 minutes and 49 seconds.
Other riders who won a stage were Croatian Kristijan Đurasek of , Australian Michael Matthews (), Norwegian Alexander Kristoff () and Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko of . Frenchman Thibaut Pinot grabbed the queen stage to the Rettenbach glacier and held the leader's jersey for four stages, but had to surrender it on the last day of competition to Špilak.
Teams As a UCI World Tour event, the organisation was obliged to invite all seventeen UCI WorldTeams, and likewise, all seventeen teams were obligated to send a squad. To complete the field, two UCI Professional Continental teams were invited to join the race. The number of riders allowed per team was eight, so the starting field contained 152 cyclists.
Pre-race favourites
Rui Costa () won the last three editions of the race, however he was not present at the 2015 event, as he raced in the Critérium du Dauphiné instead. More contenders for the overall classification of the Tour de France opted for the latter race since it was more mountainous. There were two former winners of the Tour de Suisse at the starting line, teammates: Swiss Fabian Cancellara and Luxembourger Fränk Schleck.
Contenders for the general classification were Simon Špilak (), Thibaut Pinot (), Rafał Majka (), Sergio Henao (), Tom Dumoulin (), Michał Kwiatkowski () and Geraint Thomas (). Other hopefuls were Jurgen Van den Broeck () and Sébastien Reichenbach (). It was 's Domenico Pozzovivo's first race after his disastrous crash in the Giro d'Italia, so his form was predicted as uncertain, but the Italian climber could certainly be a factor if he was in shape.
Peter Sagan (Tinkoff–Saxo) was a contender for stage wins. His directeur sportif (team manager) said he was the leader of the team and would target the opening prologue. Mark Cavendish of , who proved his form with twelve stage victories so far in the season, was a favourite for the sprint stages. Other riders contending stage glory were Alexander Kristoff () and John Degenkolb (). Cancellara, the 2009 winner, was recovering from a crash suffered at the E3 Harelbeke one-day race; his primary focus was on his recovery.
Route
An important race in its own right, the 2015 Tour de Suisse was used by some Tour de France riders to perfect their physical conditions, as the well-known French race started on 4 July. The route for the race was announced on 9 March 2015.
The race did not follow any particular pattern in terms of geographical displacement around the country, but did visit Liechtenstein and Austria on the fifth stage. It was also the longest of the race and was qualified as the queen stage. It finished near Sölden situated in Austrian territory and featured a mountaintop finish. After that, the race came back in Swiss territory for the remainder of the event. The stages which were likely to be the most important for the general classification were stage five and the individual time trial on the final stage. The race featured a total elevation gain of .
On 4 June 2015, it was announced that the town of Brunnen was desisting itself from being the start of stage three because of road damage caused by a rocky landslide, and that the town of Quinto would instead be the starting town. This shortened the stage by .
+ Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Route Distance Type Winner 1 13 June Risch-Rotkreuz to Risch-Rotkreuz Individual time trial 2 14 June Medium-mountain stage 3 15 June Quinto to Olivone Mountain stage 4 16 June Flims to Medium-mountain stage 5 17 June Unterterzen to Sölden (Austria) Mountain stage 6 18 June Wil to Biel/Bienne Flat stage 7 19 June Biel/Bienne to Düdingen Flat stage 8 20 June Bern to Bern Medium-mountain stage 9 21 June Individual time trial Total
Stages
Stage 1
13 June 2015 — Risch-Rotkreuz to Risch-Rotkreuz, , individual time trial (ITT)
The very short prologue contained three sharp corners. The first two kilometers were slightly uphill, the third one was slightly downhill and the rest was flat.
The best times coming from the first tier of riders were Matthias Brändle () with 5' 45", Greg Van Avermaet () a second slower and Cameron Meyer () another second in arrears. Thibaut Pinot () came in with a deficit of twelve seconds on Brändle. Michael Matthews () also realised a good time, four seconds down on the provisional leader. Domenico Pozzovivo () came to the finish with a fifteen-second deficit. Daniele Bennati () had the best intermediate time all day, which was calculated with remaining as the riders went through the checkpoint.
Fabian Cancellara (), beat Brändle with a time of 5' 43". Time trialist Adriano Malori () started soon after Cancellara crossed the finish line, but came in at 5' 47", four seconds slower. rider Tom Dumoulin clocked 5' 41", 2 seconds better than Cancellara, and would ultimately be the winner of the stage.
's Silvan Dillier crashed as he was on a straight stretch of road. He managed to remount and finish the stage; his final position was last place, 1' 22" down. 's leader Geraint Thomas put in a fast ride, only seven seconds down on the winner. Peter Sagan () came in five seconds in arrears of Dumoulin, missing out on his objective of being the first leader of the race. Robert Gesink () clocked a time 22 seconds slower than Dumoulin, and so did Sergio Henao of . Poles Rafał Majka () and Michał Kwiatkowski () were 20 and 21 seconds down respectively.
After the event, Dumoulin said that he prepared at altitude for the race and that he produced a hard physical effort on the uphill section and went less intensely on the flatter parts.
Stage 2
14 June 2015 — Risch-Rotkreuz to Risch-Rotkreuz,
The stage started right away with a Category 2 climb named Dorfstrasse which was long. The riders then rode a loop to tackle the latter climb once more about midway through the stage. Afterward another loop around Risch-Rotkreuz was effectuated to reach a Category 1 affair named Michaelskreuz, long. The course came back down and effectuated another circuit to tackle the climb a second and last time. This last King of the Mountains (KOM) checkpoint was situated at from the finish. The riders negotiated the descent and ended up once again in Risch-Rotkreuz for the finale.
After of racing, Luka Pibernik (), Cameron Meyer (), Jürgen Roelandts () and Valerio Agnoli of had an advantage of 1' 08" over chasers Ben King () and Simone Antonini of Pro Continental team . They also enjoyed a lead of 2' 55" on the peloton. The two chasers soon fell back into the main field. The maximum gap the peloton allowed the escapees to have was 3' 20". As the main group attacked the climb of Michaelskreuz for the first time, Arnaud Démare () crashed because of the fight for position.
With to go, the riders attacked the climb of Michaelskreuz for the second and last time and caught the remnants of the breakaway on the way up. 's Jakob Fuglsang accelerated close to the summit, with only Geraint Thomas () and Simon Špilak () initially able to follow, while Michał Kwiatkowski () lost contact. Thomas then attacked on the descent and was followed by Fuglsang and Špilak. Tom Dumoulin () chased them as he wanted to protect his leader's jersey. A small group of nine riders formed on the descent.
Close to the final kilometre, Kristijan Đurasek of placed an acceleration and continued to a solo victory on the flat run-in. The group came in four seconds in arrears, with Daniel Moreno () winning the sprint for second place before Julián Arredondo (. Overall contenders Thibaut Pinot () and Špilak were also part of that clique, coming in fourth and sixth respectively. Peter Sagan () won the sprint of the following group, coming in tenth at fourteen seconds. Dumoulin kept his leader's jersey, while Pibernik amassed enough mountain points (18) to earn the mountains classification jersey.
Stage 3
15 June 2015 — Quinto to Olivone,
This was the new version of the stage as the original route was closed due to a landslide. The stage immediately started with the ascent of the hors catégorie Gotthard Pass, the summit of which was in. Then came a long false flat until a Category 2 climb, the Zona Cumiasca. It was immediately followed by a Category 3 named ascent Via Cantonale, a climb which summited from the finish.
The race got on its way under cloudy but dry conditions. The Tour de Suisse was featuring the Gotthard Pass for the 34th time in its history, and a break formed along its early slopes, which featured cobbles. The two attackers were Stefan Denifl () and Marco Marcato (). The pair had a lead of 2' 30" on the main field as Branislau Samoilau () was chasing them. Denifl got to the top of the climb first to rake in twenty points. By the top of the pass, snow was covering the sides of the road and the field was 3' 20" back. The riders put gilets on before the descent, which lasted almost . Samoilau succeeded in joining the escape during the downhill.
The competitors replenished their food stock at the feed zone situated shortly after the downhill section. The main field started accelerating, with the team of the leader Tom Dumoulin, doing most of the work at the front. Realising this breakaway was gaining ground, came to the fore to help, resulting in the gap going down gradually. There was to cover as the gap was hovering around 4' 30".
At the foot of the Zona Cumiasca climb, with remaining, the gap had shrunk significantly. The peloton formed sprint trains to better position their leaders for the ascent. Marcato was soon dropped from the breakaway and Denifl won the mountain points. At that point, Denifl and Samoilau had only a thirty-second gap over the depleting field. The catch was effectuated with to race. Michael Albasini () attacked, soon followed by Jan Bakelants (). With the two escapees enjoying only a ten-second advantage, Sergio Henao () accelerated and passed them. The trio was ultimately reeled in. Rafał Majka () was working at the front of the small leading group to bring back the attackers to give his team leader Peter Sagan a chance at victory. In the last few kilometres, Sagan took over from Majka himself. He followed Daniel Moreno (), who had chased down Esteban Chaves (), passing him to take victory.
Stage 4
16 June 2015 — Flims to ,
The first were flat until the peloton reached the Wildhaus Pass, a Category 2 test of in length. Then there were three Category 3 climbs on offer, which were the Kirchberg climb repeated three times as the riders accomplished a loop. There were however a number of uncategorized rises, especially one with about to cover, that was expected to play a role in the outcome. The finishing were straight with a consistent incline.