After the opening stage in Italy, the Tour de Suisse Women reached Switzerland with another hilly stage, featuring the climbs of Fanghi (3.5 km at 7%) and Orselina (1.4 km at 8.9%) in the final 20 km. After 35 km, Carlotta Cipressi and Margot Vanpachtenbeke broke away from the pack, building an advantage of over 2'. The Lidl-Trek rider won all the intermediate sprints, while behind Lauren Dickson sprinted to pick up 2 bonus seconds.
The break was caught at the foot of Fanghi under the impulse of Movistar. Halfway up the climb, Kasia Niewiadoma launched a long acceleration. Only Femke De Vries, Elisa Longo Borghini, Marlen Reusser and Sarah van Dam managed to follow. The decisive move came on the following false flat section, just before the descent, where Longo Borghini accelerated. Niewiadoma responded while yellow jersey De Vries cracked completely. On the steep ramps of the final climb Longo Borghini attacked again; Niewiadoma was dropped and subsequently caught by Reusser and van Dam. The Italian champion crested the summit with a 20" lead over the chasing trio.
A dramatic twist came with 3 km remaining as Reusser and Niewiadoma took a wrong turn, while van Dam stayed on the correct route. This allowed Longo Borghini to further extend her lead and claim the stage victory, 30" ahead of van Dam. The two other chasers were eventually caught by Häberlin, who sprinted to third place at 47". Dickson followed at 1'03", while De Vries endured a difficult finale, finishing outside the top 20 at 2'15" from Longo Borghini.
Double shot for Longo Borghini who is now also leading the GC by 27" over Dickson and 34" over Van Dam. Reusser and Niewiadoma are now 57" behind the Italian.
👕 JERSEYS:
🟡 GC: 🇮🇹 Elisa Longo Borghini (UAD)
🔵 Pts: 🇳🇱 Femke De Vries (TVL)
🟢 QOM: 🇳🇱 F. De Vries | 🇨🇭 Steffi Häberlin
⚪️ U25: 🇨🇦 Sarah van Dam (TVL)