The Tour de France comes to Switzerland

Switzerland will be hosting two of the 21 stages of the 2016 Tour de France. (SRF/swissinfo.ch)

In the third and last week of the Tour de France the race will be heading to Switzerland with a first stage ending in Bern on July 18. After a rest day, the cycling race continues to the lower Valais village of Finhaut, with the finishing line at almost 2,000 metres above sea level.

Bern’s city mayor Alexander Tschäppät says he is looking forward to the financial gains and the promotion that the city will get by hosting one of the stages of the world’s most important cycling race, a global sporting event followed by millions of television viewers.

The cycling race will be the biggest sporting event that to be hosted in the Swiss capital since the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship.

The last time that Switzerland hosted a leg of the Tour de France was in 2012. In the last 25 years, stage finishes were hosted in Switzerland in Verbier (2009), Lausanne (2000), La Chaux-de-Fonds (1998), Neuchâtel (1998), Fribourg (1997) and Geneva (1990).