Swiss cycling pros at the head of the peloton

Society

Switzerland is not just a nation of tennis players and skiers. The competitive cycling scene has also often seen Swiss pros in the lead in the world's most important races. Five powerful pedallers: introducing Switzerland's leading cyclists.

When the people of Bern say they've spotted Spartacus, they don't mean the Roman gladiator but high-flying Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara. The outstanding talent from Ittigen in the canton of Bern has recently brought a level of recognition to Swiss cycling unparalleled since the golden age of the 1950s, when not just one but two legendary Swiss cyclists, Hugo Koblet and Ferdy Kübler, triumphed in the Tour de France.

Twenty-nine days in the yellow jersey of the Tour de France

Fabian Cancellara (35) is one of the best racing cyclists in the world, and indisputably the best Swiss rider of this millennium. His ten national titles speak for themselves. He is also the last Swiss contestant to win the country's own major race, the Tour de Suisse, in 2009.

He generates excitement both at home and abroad. As four-time world champion in individual time trials (2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010), he has celebrated more world championships than any racer before him. A specialist in the Spring Classics, he has already triumphed three times in the Paris-Roubaix, three times in the Tour of Flanders and once in the Milan–San Remo during his successful career. He celebrated one of his biggest victories at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he won the gold medal in the individual time trial.

This year he will take on the Tour de France for the eleventh and final time. Although he has never yet reached the Champs-Elysée as overall winner, his 29 days in the yellow jersey make him one of the most successful Tour cyclists of our times. No other rider has worn the leader's jersey for so long without taking the overall victory.

A home-town farewell to the Tour de France

Cancellara's farewell Tour could not have been better planned if it had been scripted by a professional screenwriter. For the first time in its 103-year history, the 2016 Tour de France will pass through Fabian Cancellara's home town on 18 July. He has announced that 2016 will be his last Tour de France. Being first to cross the finish line in Bern, just a few kilometres from his home in Ittigen, could be the high point of his career.

The 16th stage of the world's third-largest sporting event will run from the Jura through the Three Lakes Region, past the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Old City of Bern to the finish line at the Stade de Suisse (where Germany won the World Cup in football in 1954).

After a rest day on Tuesday, the stage from Bern to the Lac d'Émosson in Valais Canton, at an altitude of nearly 2000 metres, could see an early decision in the Tour. Finhaut-Emosson is a spectacular location for the stage.

The Tour de France last came to Switzerland in 2012, when the eighth stage ended in Pruntrut.

Hugo Koblet and Ferdy Kübler unleash cycling fever

Nearly 60 years before Fabian Cancellara, Hugo Koblet and Ferdy Kübler triggered a true wave of cycling fever in Switzerland. Hugo Koblet began his professional career in 1946 as a track cyclist, dominating the pursuit races at the Zurich-Oerlikon Velodrome from 1947 to 1954. (The Velodrome, incidentally, is Switzerland's oldest extant sporting facility, dating back to 1912.)

Koblet drew international attention in 1950 when he became the first non-Italian to win the Giro d’Italia on the 33rd running of the Italian tour. His first overall victory in the Tour de Suisse soon followed.

The greatest triumph of his career came with winning the 1951 Tour de France, in which he led in five stages. Overall, Koblet wore the yellow jersey for eleven stages of the Tour de France.

Just one year before Koblet, another Swiss cyclist made headlines at the 1950 Tour de France. At age 31, Ferdy Kübler became the first Swiss racer ever to win the Tour de France. To this day, Ferdy Kübler and Hugo Koblet – fierce rivals at the time – are the only two overall winners of the Tour de France from Switzerland.

Ferdi Kübler — *Ferdy Kübler is first to cross the finish line (source: roadbike.de)*

Kübler's career began in 1940. Two years later, in 1942, he won his first major race, the Tour de Suisse. But it was only at an advanced age (for a sportsman) that Ferdinand 'Ferdy' Kübler joined the world's elite, winning the Tour de Suisse two more times in 1948 and 1951 along with his Tour de France victory in 1950.

Also known in Switzerland as 'Ferdy National', Kübler retired from cycling in 1957. Today at 96 he is the oldest surviving overall winner of the Tour de France.

The fastest woman is from Switzerland

A Swiss sportswoman can also be found at the head of the women's peloton. Karin Thürig is a true all-rounder. After starting out as a volleyball player, she switched disciplines at age 25 to become world champion in duathlon in 2001 and 2002.

Since duathlon is not an Olympic discipline, she focused on cycle racing in 2001. Just one year later she took third place in the Road World Championships, then won the bronze medal in individual time trials at the Summer Olympics in Athens. One year later she became the first Swiss woman to stand atop the time trial podium at the world championships in Verona. Following another world championship title in 2005, she successfully defended her bronze medal in time trials from Athens at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Thürig moves fast even when she's not on wheels: since retiring from cycling in 2009 she has won several Ironman competitions, taking second place in the 2011 Ironman World Championship.

The new hope

The latest hopeful on the Swiss cycling scene is named Mathias Frank. He is captain of the only Swiss team with UCI WorldTour status, IAM Cycling.

After initially drawing attention mainly at smaller one-day races since turning pro in 2007, he has achieved excellent results in recent years, taking sixth place overall in the Tour de Suisse in 2011 and second in 2014.