Published June 21, 2026 06:14AM
Marlen Reusser confounded expectations at the Tour de Suisse Women on Sunday, dropping big rival Elisa Longo Borghini early in the stage and then burning off all the others to win the concluding mountain stage.
The Swiss Movistar rider surged inside the final kilometer to beat Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) by seven seconds, with Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) 37 seconds back at the finish at Villars-sur-Ollon.
Reusser’s closest challenger Longo Borghini suffered in the heat and cracked on the second climb, chasing for a long time but ultimately finishing 9:56 behind.
Reusser ran out the final overall winner, a stomping 1:31 ahead of Kerbaol and 2:02 in front of Niewiadoma.
It was her second stage win in a row and her third overall victory in the Tour de Suisse Women, marking a fine return after fracturing her back in a crash at the Tour of Flanders.
“It was really tough this year. I had two fractures in my back in Flanders,” she said. “Then I tried to recover as fast as I can to be able to participate in the Giro. As everybody could see, it was not the easiest. I really had quite some troubles there, especially with the nerves in my left leg.
“The plan was to do a bit of holiday after the Giro but we skipped the holiday and I was really working with therapists, osteopaths, physios, medical doctors on this problem. I think we got a lot further there. But still it was early to compete in the Tour de Suisse and I think it is not all 100 percent solved. But when I see what step I could make in this short time, I am super happy about it.”
A dramatic final stage
Reusser had appeared less strong than Longo Borghini earlier this week on the climbs but seized the yellow jersey on Saturday when she won the time trial.
They were ten seconds apart at the start of Sunday’s big finale and while Longo Borghini appeared quietly confident after the TT, she was ultimately not at her best.
She did set the pace early on during the second climb, moving to the front with less than 7km to go to the summit. However soon afterwards Femke De Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked and while Reusser and Niewiadoma went with her, Longo Borghini didn’t respond.
“I felt very warm today from the very beginning. I am usually not really good in heat. Today was really a hard day for me but that is cycling. It is what it is,” the Italian champ said afterwards.
Reusser said she was confident in her abilities going into the stage, and had reason to believe she could handle her rivals.
“Elisa and also Kasia actually are riders who are best in the small, shorter punchy climbs like we had in the first three days.
“Normally if it is a longer climb it is a bit harder for them and better for me. I think Elisa didn’t have the best day today. Kasia had a good day, she was really strong in the end. Usually these kind of days are really in my favor, because when I am fully in shape I am a really good climber for long, hard climbs.”
After she, Niewiadoma and De Vries pushed ahead Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) and Megan Arens (Picnic PostNL) got up to the leaders. Arens is just 19 but attacked close to the top of the climb, in search of mountains points.
And while she was distanced on the descent, she has impressed this week and is clearly a very promising rider.
A big chase behind
Longo Borghini, Le Court and others went over the summit 1’25 back but managed to reduce their deficit to just 50 seconds on the descent. However Longo Borghini faltered on the final climb and ended up losing lots of time, with Le Court setting off in pursuit of the leaders and getting very close by the finish line.
Niewiadoma put in a big surge on that climb and dropped Kerbaol and De Vries. She tried multiple times to drop Reusser but was unable to do so.
“It was a hard one. It was the stage I was looking forward to most,” she said. “At first I felt really terrible. On the first climb I was like, if my legs are like this, then my day is over pretty soon. But luckily sometimes you just need this hard sting and then your legs get better, they are opening up. Then on the long climb I felt I was finding my rhythm.
“Of course the heat is such a beast. I don’t believe anyone was ready for such exposure, we were really suffering. On the last climb honestly I had nothing to lose. I just had to go for the attack. I know I had Marlen on the wheel. Normally I could play it tactically, trying to force her to ride as well. But I just wanted to get the best effort out of this climb.”
Motivated also to go deep and help prepare for the Tour de France, she was accepting of the final result. Reusser was, ultimately, the strongest in the race, proving that with her TT win and the mountains stage success.
“I went all in for this last attack,” she said. “It was 500 meter or even more to the line, and all uphill. After climbing so much it hurt. It was hard.”
It was, it took her a minute or so to get her composure back, but she ends the race with two stage wins, the general classification and verification that she is on course for a very big showing in the Tour de France Femmes.
Doing so on home soil makes it even better.