The third stage of the Tour de Suisse was, on paper, the easiest of the race, with the toughest climb (Sankt Luzisteig, 2 km at 10%) coming right after the start. A strong breakaway of eight riders formed on the ascent, featuring Kim Le Court Pienaar (8th in GC at 1'13"), alongside Berthet, Arens, Adegeest, Markus, Roseman-Gannon, Sadnik and Towers. Given the presence of dangerous riders, UAE Team ADQ and Canyon//SRAM kept the break under control and its advantage never exceeded two minutes. Femke Markus, the last remaining rider from the break, was caught with 17 km to go, just after the first bonus sprint, where Reusser and Longo Borghini picked up 2 and 1 seconds respectively. The second sprint was won by Lauren Dickson, with Reusser 3rd. Shortly afterwards, Laura Asencio attacked, but she too was reeled in inside the final 10 km.
Entering the final 4 km, Lauren Dickson, third overall, crashed. It is not yet clear whether she managed to finish the stage. Marlen Reusser was also delayed by the incident, although her time loss was later neutralized.The stage was eventually decided in a bunch sprint. Zoe Bäckstedt launched a long sprint from around 250 m to go, opening a sizeable gap over her rivals to claim her third WWT victory and her first outside of time trials. Second place went to Lily Williams, with Shari Bossuyt completing the podium. Elisa Longo Borghini retained the yellow jersey.
Tomorrow the riders will face a 23.7 km flat individual time trial in Aarburg, where Bäckstedt will try to make it a double!
👕 JERSEYS:
🟡 GC: 🇮🇹 Elisa Longo Borghini (UAD)
🔵 Pts: 🇳🇱 Femke De Vries (TVL)
🟢 QOM: 🇳🇱 F. De Vries | 🇳🇱 Megan Arens
⚪️ U25: 🇨🇦 Sarah van Dam (TVL)