Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) won the 2019 Tour de Suisse ahead of Rohan Dennis (Bahrain-Merida) and Bora-Hansgrohe's Patrick Konrad (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Tour de Suisse, which overlaps with French stage race the Critérium du Dauphiné, has in recent years fallen a little out of favour with those riders targeting a high overall finish at the Tour de France – not through any fault of the race, but because opting for the Dauphiné gives riders almost an extra week's worth of recovery as they hone their form for La Grande Boucle.

Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) bucked the trend in 2019, however, not only opting for the Tour de Suisse but winning it, ahead of winning the Tour de France. The last Tour winner to ride in Switzerland as preparation for the Tour had been 2010 winner Andy Schleck, who took 14th in the preparation race.

The runner-up to Bernal at the 2019 edition was Bahrain-Merida's Rohan Dennis, in somewhat of a surprise, despite the Australian's moves in recent years towards becoming a stage-race contender.

"I really didn't expect to come here and get second overall and a stage win," Dennis admitted. "Bernal was just a little too strong this week. But second overall, we can be really proud of that."