Tour de Suisse Women stage 2 LIVE: Will the hilly finale see more GC attacks?

The two riders ahead, for the last 51 kilometres Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health), Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek), have been caught with 19 kilometres to go.

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A shot of the main peloton as they bear down on the two breakaways.

2026 Tour de Suisse Women: the bunch bearing down on the break late on (Image credit: Getty Images)

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Third sprint of the day at Cugnaso: Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek) gets the first place, undisputed by Cipressi. The bunch don’t fight for the remaining bonus second, picked up by Minke Anderson (EF Education-Oatly).

And the gap drops to under a minute for the first time in 35 kilometres

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Talbot is caught

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Meanwhile, breakaway duo Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health), Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek) plough on determinedly. 1:39 the gap on the bunch with 26 kilometres to go.

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Talbot’s lone effort doesn’t look to be paying off. Just 20 seconds between the Australian and the bunch now.

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Just 500 metres of vertical climbing remain of a day’s total of 1,248 metres incidentally, but they are the two Cat.3 climbs that will likely decide the stage, so they’re the ones that count the most.

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Here’s a first shot of Talbot

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Talbot is also 18:27 down on GC so definitely not a threat to De Vries.

Km 82.5: Sprint: Cugnaso

Km 91.9: Climb: Fanghi (Cat.3, 3.5km, 7%)

Km 97.2: Climb: Via Consiglio Mezzano (Cat.3, 1.4km, 9%)

Km 105.6 Finish: Locarno

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Talbot’s now reach the half-way point between the bunch and the break. She has a gap of 45 seconds on the two ahead, Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health), Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek), who have 1:30 on the main peloton.

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There’s a lone counter-attacker, Josie Talbot (Liv AIUa Jayco), the bunch is easing back again, making it easier for the Australian to bridge across.

Yet more counter-attacks going

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Second yesterday, that reduces Dickson’s gap on the race leader on GC to just two seconds.

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The battle for the sprints has produced some large counter-attacks, but nothing sticking for now.

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The remaining second on offer at the Tissot sprints was much more disputed, with Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-SUEZ) picking up the third place on both occasions.

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And Vanpachtenbeke takes the second sprint as well: 2:22 the gap

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Vanpachtenbeke takes the first sprint of the day ahead of Cipressi without too much difficulty.

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And the gap is now up 1:40

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A shot of the peloton in pursuit mode

2026 Tour de Suisse Women stage 2: the bunch chasing down the two-up break (Image credit: Getty Images)

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The gap continues to rise, now up to 55 seconds. Neither rider represents any kind of GC threat, as Cipressi started the day 12:01 down whilst Vanpachtenbeke is at 18:27.

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The two-up break is over the top of the unclassified descent and speeding down the far side towards the bonus sprint.

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And now it’s doubled to 40 seconds. Seems like we’ve got our break of the day.

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20 second gap for the two breakaways,

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Not clear how the crash happened in the middle of the peloton, maybe a touch of wheels.

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The yellow jersey could get back on her bike pretty fast and supported her teammates is quickly back in the bunch.

And the yellow jersey, Femke de Vries, is down.

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Here’s a first photo of the breakaway. They’re hovering between the 10 and 15 second mark right now.

2026 Tour de Suisse women: early break of the day (Image credit: Getty Images)

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Yet more attacks from the bunch, and the gap’s dropping again, back to 10 seconds.

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And there are three counter-attackers, but they’re brought back.

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The gap is now up to 20 seconds. This is the one unclassified climb before the finale, so it makes sense for moves to try to go here.

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Despite the relentlessly fast pace as we get deeper into the race, two rider break tries to go clear on a rising road at 68 km to go: Carlota Cipressi (Human Powered Health) and Margot VanPachtenbeke (Lidl-Trek).

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It’s a very sunny day in southern Switzerland and the peloton is rolling along a typically broad, well-surfaced road. To judge by the first TV images not much wind.

Bunch still all together. Will it stay that way til the climbs at the end?

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A shot of the race leader before today’s start

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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Still no break, by the way, with a brisk average speed of nearly 45km right now.

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With just three teammates, it’s going to be interesting to see how race leader De Vries and Visma handle the other GC riders and their attacks.
“We will see, we will see, I don’t think we have to control it, we have to be sharp and follow the right moves,” De Vries says. “And we’ll be good.”
Looking further ahead and her prospects of winning overall, De Vries points to Marlen Reusser (Movistar) as one key challenger. “I really don’t know, the time trial is really Marlen’s speciality and she can gain a lot of time on me then so we just have to fight and give everything on that day and then we’ll see how we approach the final stage. I think I have a good gap and that’s a really nice position to start from. It’s too soon to say if I can win it.”

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The race is ten kilometres old and the peloton remains all together for now.

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Race organisation website is reporting an abandon for unspecified reasons: Linda Zanetti (Swiss National Team).

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Meanwhile the first attacks are beginning on stage 2, but nobody’s clear yet. Bunch still together.

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Km 82.5: Sprint: Cugnaso

Km 91.9: Climb: Fanghi (Cat.3, 3.5km, 7%)

Km 97.2: Climb: Via Consiglio Mezzano (Cat.3, 1.4km, 9%)

Km 105.6 Finish: Locarno

And stage 2 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse Women, Locarno-Locarno, 105.6km is officially underway

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The men’s and women’s stages of the Tour de Suisse have a near-identical finale, by the way, although the men also have to face a Cat.2 climb early on.

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Riders are moving onto the neutralised section, 4.1 kilometres before racing proper gets underway.

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Mountains: Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike)

BYR: Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly)

Teams: FDJ United-SUEZ

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Racing is due to get underway at 0932 CET for the 92 riders in the race.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse Women