The 6th edition of Tour de Suisse Women kicked off today from Italy with a tough stage featuring four steep categorized climbs, with the last one, Bordighi (1km at 11%), crested at 5km to go. After the first QOM, won by Häberlin, a very strong group of 12 emerged featuring GC favourites such as Femke De Vries, Lauren Dickson, Urška Žigart and Nienke Vinke and stage hunters such as Franziska Koch, Liane Lippert, Karlijn Swinkels and Zoe Bäckstedt. Swinkels won the first intermediate sprint, Bäckstedt the second, but once they reached the climb of Triangia (4.2km à 7.2%), Žigart, De Vries and Dickson made the difference. De Vries pushed on ghe technical descent and went solo but Dickson later rejoined.
With the gap overpassing 1'30", Movistar sensed the danger and started working hard in the peloton, even dropping Lippert from the break to help Reusser. At the foot of Bordighi the gap was reduced to under one minute. On the brutal ramps Kasia Niewiadoma put the hammer down, dropping all her rivals, but the front duo still held a 25" lead. In the descent Niewiadoma was rejoined by Reusser, Le Court, Longo Borghini, Kerbaol, Häberlin and Van Dam. De Vries and Dickson eventually contested for the win: the FDJ rider opened up the sprint but was overpassed into the final 100m by the Visma leader, who claimed her first professional win! Third place at 29" for Cédrine Kerbaol who exploited her abilities to make the difference in the last hairpins of the final descent while Le Court regulated the sprint for 4th place ahead of van Dam.