Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) won the overall title of the Tour de Suisse Women on Tuesday while her teammate Niamh Fisher-Black scored the sprint victory for stage 4.
Reusser fought to defend her yellow jersey on the final stage as Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) went on a 50-kilometre long-range attack and took the virtual lead. Reusser went on a solo chase while Fisher-Black stayed with Niewiadoma.
Fisher-Black outsprinted Niewiadoma to win the final stage, while Reusser reduced the deficit enough with a third-place finish on the stage to defend her GC lead.
Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) won the sprint of a small group to finish fourth on the day and second overall. Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) had worked hard to reduce the gap to Niewiadoma and succeeded in defending her third place in GC by seven seconds.
“It was not a good situation because Kasia was riding full-gas in the front, Trek was not helping. It was just Demi and me left, and Demi was riding on the front without getting any help, so I thought, the best is to go on the offensive,” Reusser said about her solo move.
She distanced the rest of the peloton in a descent 25km from the finish and used her ITT skills to close the two-minute gap to Niewiadoma, finishing 37 seconds behind in the end and defending yellow.
“I am so happy, this was such a big goal of mine. I was dreaming of that a little bit, and the team supported me one hundred percent and really did everything to make this happen, I am super proud, super happy, it’s a dream come true, really,” said Reusser, overjoyed to win the home race.
How it unfolded
The final stage consisted of a big loop with a 6.2km climb followed by two-and-a-half laps of a circuit around Ebnat-Kappel that included the short, 7.6% ascent of the Schorüti, to be climbed three times, and two intermediate sprints.
A breakaway of 10 riders formed very early on the 100-kilometre stage, but at the top of the first-category Wintersbergstrasse with 57.8 km to go, only Julie Van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Eglantine Rayer (Team DSM) were left in front.
Brodie Chapman (Trek-Segafredo) attacked in the descent and was followed by Niewiadoma and Fisher-Black, although Chapman dropped back again soon. When the chasers caught Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM), who had been in the early break, she did one last turn in support of her teammate before also being dropped.
On the first ascent of the Schorüti, Niewiadoma and Fisher-Black had made it to Van de Velde and Rayer. They reached the top 1:23 ahead of a small group of seven who had split from the peloton, though dropped riders came back again after the climb.
With two laps at 16.4 km to go, the front group was 2:15 minutes ahead, putting Niewiadoma into the virtual GC lead. She and Fisher-Black dropped Rayer and Van de Velde on the Schorüti climb while Vollering was the only one chasing in the peloton.
Now 2:30 minutes down, Reusser saw her overall victory slipping away and threw herself into the descent, splitting the peloton once again and going on a solo chase. She had reduced the gap to 47 seconds with one lap to go.
Reusser lost a bit of ground to Niewiadoma on the final time up the Schorüti, cresting the top 56 seconds behind, but her overall victory was secured. In the group behind the yellow jersey, Vollering, Longo Borghini, and Petra Stiasny (Fenix-Deceuninck) had dropped the other seven riders on the climb, picking up Rayer and Van de Velde as Longo Borghini went to the front to defend her podium spot against Niewiadoma.
On the finishing straight, Fisher-Black stayed behind Niewiadoma until the latter launched her sprint, and the New Zealander could easily go around Niewwiadoma to take her first Women’s WorldTour victory, also winning the overall U23 classification.
On top of the GC, Reusser won the points classification while Élise Chabbey (Canyon-SRAM) took home another QOM jersey for her collection.
Results
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