The Tour de Suisse starts in Italy today and there are only five stages. What was once the fourth biggest stage race on the World Tour calendar has now become the joint-shortest.If Pogaar wins on Sunday hell add the Tour de Suisse to his palmars where hes got little else to win beyond the Vuelta and Olympics. If Primo Rogli wins hell add the only missing stage race, alongside the Tour of course. Missing because the Tour de Suisse has been held up as a week-long race to go alongside the Dauphin, the Tour of the Basque Country, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and other pillars of the calendar. Now at five days nobody will put an asterisk next to the Tour de Suisse but it is not what it was.The Tour de Suisse started in 1933. Despite the French name, it was organised by the Schweizerischer Radfahrer Bund, one of two cycling federations Switzerland at the time and as the name hints, held in the German-speaking cantons. Rather than being called the Schweizer Rundfahrt, French was for long the international language of cycling and the Tour de Suisse label was used.The race has shrunk over time. It used to have a mid-week start and finish. In 1986 it started on a Tuesday and after 12 days of racing finished on a Friday. In 2004 it settled on the weekend-to-weekend format, nine days of racing from Saturday to Sunday. In 2021 it went to eight days, Sunday to Sunday.Now at five days the race is shorter than the Tour Down Under and the Tour de Romandie and only matched by the Renewi Tour which is five days too. Anything less probably wouldnt be allowed as a World Tour stage race.Embed from Getty ImagesWhy the shrinkage? Theres some spin around this. The womens Tour de Suisse is growing from three days to five so the mens reduction has been presented as equalisation. Its great that the women get five days. But what is also happening is the womens race happens in the morning, the men in the afternoon and on the same course which allows for savings as the organisers have the same finish arch in place, the same staff on the ground. Putting the womens race in the morning gives them low audiences compared to the mens race in the late afternoon.In an interview with newspaper HLN (paywall), Thomas Spiegel of race shareholder Flanders Classics (it bought in 2023) call it a facelift and say the race has been condensed to better accommodate riders wishing to dip and in out of pre-Tour altitude training camps.Read the Swiss press and there is less spin, the race has been shortened because it has had financial and logistical difficulties. New website Watson.ch says the Tour de Suisse budget last year was eight million Swiss francs (8.7m), of which the womens race was one million and it lost several hundred thousand francs. Now the budget is cut to six million and putting on both races together saves money. But a shrinking race is less valuable, five days of content rather than eight.Similarly the concept of having the start and finish in the same place each day has its merits, the idea is to create an event for the day rather than seeing the buses park, riders assemble then then ride away. But again this is not always by choice, other reports suggest the race was struggling to find routes with locals and business frustrated by road closures.Embed from Getty ImagesWhat happens in here though can happen elsewhere. The Tour of California came and went because it was financially unviable. The Volta Catalunya has needed emergency loans in the past. The Tour de Romandie has financial troubles today. If wealthy Switzerland has problems running bike races, look at its neighbouring countries with high debts that are looking for savings and sports are an easy cut. But countries like the UK and Germany only have small races.Embed from Getty ImagesNone of this criticism is meant to be against the race. Theres the famous joke told by Woody Allen at the start of his film Annie Hall where he cites two women at a resort and one says Boy the food at this place is really terrible and the other says Yeah, I know, and such small portions. Today the only complaint is that the serving has shrunk, the dish remains mouthwatering. Give me more racing, give me the Sustenpass, the Furka, the Grosse Scheidegg, the Albula, the Gotthard and its Tremola cobbles, glacial lakes and landscapes that evoke the Sound of Music and Heidi, the Shangri-La for Alpine cycling, and all in the sublime June sunshine.ConclusionA diminished Tour de Suisse goes from eight to five days. Once heralded as the fourth stage race of the season, now its ranks alongside the Renewi Tour, although with far better scenery. Contrary to some reports, the shrinkage is because of financial losses.The dual format of men and women will be interesting to watch, as will the circuits format but less from a sports viewpoint and more the insider perspective of logistics and event management. Theres plenty to enjoy, the wish is there was more.The post The Shrinking Tour de Suisse first appeared on The Inner Ring.