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

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.

The race came over the Alblua Pass on stage 5, descending to the finish line at La Punt, and it was due to return back over the climb in the opposite direction when racing resumed at 10:48 local time on Friday.  The start time in Chur will now be at 12:30.

"The entire Tour convoy with the 23 teams will be moved in the morning from the Engadine via the Flüela Pass as a first priority. The infrastructure and signalling are being set up."

The Chur start line means around 149km of the planned route remains, including the category 3 climbs of Kerenzerberg and Islisberg, with the last coming in the final 10km before the Oberwil-Lieli finish line.

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation's Swissinfo site said at midnight a large stream of debris fell on the mountainside above the evacuated village of Brienz. A tweet from the municipality of Albula said "the rock masses only just missed the village: they left a meter-high deposit on the main road near the schoolhouse."

After the fifth stage of the eight stage Tour de Suisse Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) was in the yellow jersey, with Juan Ayuso having won in La Punt. The focus however quickly shifted from results as Gino Mäder was airlifted to hospital after he crashed heavily on the descent of the Albula pass.