Tour de Suisse stage 6 start shifted due to Brienz rock avalanche

Stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse 2023 heading toward La Punt (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

The Tour de Suisse has had to make a quick change to stage 6, shortening the stage with a move of start locations from La Punt to Chur because of a rock avalanche above Brienz, near the planned route for the race.

The stage was set to be the longest of the race at 215.3km, starting with the category 1 climb of the Albula Pass and then moving on to the category 2 Lantsch on the way through Lenzerheide and onto Chur at 66.7km into the day of racing. That, however, all changed when the village Brienz – which was last month evacuated due to the threat of a rockslide – had the warning level shifted to Phase Blue, the highest on the scale of danger levels.

"Phase Blue was declared in Brienz during the night," said Tour de Suisse organisers in a statement. "The route over the Albula Pass cannot be travelled. The sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse will therefore start in Chur instead of La Punt.

Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.