The Tour de Suisse made an abrupt change to stage 6, moving the start from La Punt to Cours and shortening the stage due to a rock avalanche over Brienz near the planned race route.

The stage was set to be the longest of the race at 215.3 km, starting with the climb of the Category 1 Albula Pass, passing through Lenzerheide and then the Category 2 Langsch Pass at the 66.7 km mark to Chur. But all that changed last month when the village of Brienz was moved to Phase Blue, the highest danger level, after an evacuation advisory was issued due to the threat of rockslides. "Phase blue was declared in Brienz during the night," Tour de Suisse organizers said in a statement. The route over the Albula Pass is now impassable." Stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse will start in Cours instead of La Punt.

The race was scheduled to cross the Albrua pass on stage 5, descend to the finish line in La Punt, and then climb back up in the opposite direction when the race resumes at 10:48 local time on Friday. The start in sur would be at 12:30.

"The top priority for the convoy of all 23 Tour teams will be to move from Engadin via the Flura Pass in the morning. Infrastructure and signaling preparations are underway."

"The Tour will be held in the morning.

The start line in Chur represents about 149 km remaining on the planned route, including the Category 3 climbs of the Kellenzerberg and Islesberg, with the final climb coming 10 km before the finish in Oberwil-Lieri.

According to the Swissinfo website, at midnight, a large amount of debris fell on the mountainside above the evacuated village of Brienz. A tweet from the municipality of Albula said that "the mass of rock only slightly missed the village, leaving a one-meter-high deposit on the main road near the school building."

In stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse, contested over eight stages, Matthias Skjelmoes (Trek-Segafredo) took the yellow jersey. However, the focus was soon removed from the results as Gino Mader was taken to hospital after a serious crash on the descent of the Albula pass.