Organizers of Tour de Suisse has confirmed the initial plans and start and finishing cities for the 2014 edition of the Swiss national tour. The race will open with a prologue in Bellinzona, contain a long time trial and finish with two consecutive mountain stages.

A preliminary route for the 2014 edition of the Tour de Suisse has been drawn up by the organizers of the Swiss national tour which have sent out a press release to confirm the start and finishing cities for the big June race. As usual the race is set to be a mountainous one and will come to a close on dramatic fashion with two tough stages in the mountains.

The race will kick off with a stage 1 time trial in Bellinzona in the southern part of the country before initiating a journey that will bring the peloton to the north. Stage 2 takes the riders to Sarnen while the third stage will end in Heiden in the northeastern part of the country.

Stages to Ossingen, Büren a. Aare and Delemont will bring the peloton to the western part of the country for the start of three decisive stages in the final weekend of the race. The final general classification will start to take shape on the stage 7 time trial in Worb while the race will be decided on the mountain stages to Verbier and Saas-Fee.

The summit finish in Verbier has been used several times in the past, most recently in 2012 when Rui Costa laid the foundations to his overall win by taking a convincing victory. Kim Kirchen won on the climb in 2008 while Pablo Lastras triumphed three years earlier. In 2009, a Tour de France stage finished on the climb where Alberto Contador showed his superiority by distancing Andy Schleck by almost 45 seconds.

This year's edition of the race was won by Rui Costa who repeated his 2012 win in the race that is one of the traditional preparation events for the Tour de France. The 2014 edition will take place from June 14 to June 22 and consists of 9 stages.