Tour de Suisse Women: Marlen Reusser fends off dramatic chase to win stage 5 on Col de la Croix and secure third home GC victory

Seven seconds behind, Kerbaol outsprinted Niewiadoma-Phinney for second place on the stage, and they also finish on the GC podium in that order.

Latest Videos From

Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney had been part of a front group of five that formed halfway through the stage when Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked and was followed by Megan Arens (Picnic PostNL) and the two GC contenders. Kerbaol bridged to them after a brief chase, and Arens was left behind on the descent from the Col de la Croix.

On the finishing climb, Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked with 8.8km to go, and only Reusser could stay on her wheel. Kerbaol was over 30 seconds behind at one point but fought her way back, coming back on the final kilometre and immediately attacking for the stage victory. When Niewiadoma-Phinney closed the gap, Reusser attacked from behind and went clear to win the stage.

You may like

“I’m super happy with how everything went. It’s not that I came into this race with the biggest confidence, so I’m super happy that it worked out,” Reusser said at the finish.

“Today, I really could profit from the situation we had in the GC. I could look at the others. Kasia did a lot of work on this [finishing] climb, and that helped me a lot. So, thank you, Kasia.”

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

More to follow…