Tour de Suisse Women stage 3 LIVE: eight-rider breakaway has nearly two minutes on bunch

The eight breakaways are now on the one classified climb of the day, the Kobelwald (Cat.3, 1km, 10%).

71 kms to go

1:55 the gap

Two abandons have been reported by the organisers, both due to a crash earlier on the stage: Aromitalia Vaiano riders Lucia Brillante and Petra Zsanko.

The only rider who doesn't seem to be collaborating in the break is Visma-Lease a Bike's Katharina Sadnik, which might well be because she is protecting the interests of teammate Sarah Van Dam, Best Young Rider, and third overall.

Le Court-Pienaar race leader on the road

Having dropped to 45 seconds, the gap for the eight ahead is now 1:35, making breakaway Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) - 1:13 down on GC- race leader on the road.

Gap for the eight ahead is currently hovering around 1:05 seconds.

And here's a shot of Arens on the attack early on, before she was joined by the seven other breakaways.

Gap coming down

The gap is shrinking to just 45 seconds

UAE and Canyon SRAM are leading the bunch.

Current gap at 94 kilometres to go for the eight leaders is 1:00

Le Court-Pienaar is the best placed on GC, at 1:13 on race leader Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) so likely they won't let it go far too up the road.

Here's the eight riders in the break:
Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal)

Alice Towers (EF Education-Oatly)

Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ)

Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek)

Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco)

Megan Arens (Picnic PostNL)

Femke Markus (SDWorx-Protime)

Katharina Sadnik (Visma-Lease a Bike)

On today's menu

Km 50.8: Climb: Kobelwald (Cat.3, 1km, 10%)

Km 79.1: Bonus Sprint: Rüthi

Km 82.5: Sprint: Cugnaso

Km 103.8: Sprint Sevelen (Tissot)

Km 104.8: Sprint Sevelen (Tissot)

Km 120.8 Finish: Bad Ragaz

Arens joined by the seven chasesrs, so that's eight riders in the lead.

Meantime here's a shot of the race classification leaders from today's start.

Seven riders closing down on the one race leader, Arens, just 20 seconds back. The main peloton is at 55 seconds.

Good news. All riders involved in the crash have restarted, according to race radio.

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Some riders dropped after the crash and seven riders counter-attacking.

Crash in the bunch. At least five riders down.

Gap has dropped to 25 seconds and there's a small group of counter-attackers, six riders going clear.

108 km to go

Counter-attack by a lone rider, but the peloton wasn't too happy about that. 45 seconds the gap for Arens.

Gap is up to 45 seconds. Getting to the now-or-never point for anybody who wants to bridge across to Arens for what could be the break of the day.

One confirmed DNS for now by the way: Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal). Žigart completed the stage, but a terrible crash late on left her with a fractured jaw.

We're off the descent of the Sankt Luzisteig and the peloton is slowing notably according to race radio. Gap still at 30 seconds for Arens.

Arens is 6:05 down on GC so she is certainly not an overall threat, but it remains to be seen if more riders get across on the flatter part that follows. Otherwise, this could be a very long solo move.

She's on the descent of the Sankt Luzisteig, after which we have a mostly flat stage. Bunch very strung out right now.

Arens gap is now up to 30 seconds.

One early attacker, Megan Arens (Picnic Post NL), with a 20-second gap. Some riders dropped on the steep slopes of the Sankt Luzisteig

Meantime here's the overall standings after yesterday's stage, courtesy of FirstCycling

Bunch still together in the opening few hundred metres, but given there's an unclassified climb about to start, that may well change soon.

Racing underway

And stage 3 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse Women, Bad Ragaz-Bad Ragaz, 120.8 km long and with 1094 metres of elevation gain, is officially underway.

While we're waiting for the start, here's our report on yesterday's dramatic stage, which saw a second leader emerging in as many days and plenty of late attacks.

Tour de Suisse Women: Elisa Longo Borghini wins hilly stage 2 and takes GC lead with attack on final climb in Locarno

Just over three kilometres of neutralised to ride before racing proper gets underway.

And the riders are now underway on the neutralised section.

A reminder of our race classification leaders:

GC: Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)

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

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

BYR: Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Teams: EF Education-Oatly

They'll have a great chance to get away as soon as the flag drops at 0918 CET, too, given there's a short but very steep opening climb, the Sankt Luzisteig (2km, 101%) right at the beginning. Curiously enough, it's not classified for the mountains classification, but it'll still hurt the legs and maybe act as a springboard for an early move.

The most likely option on the cards for today's 120.8 kilometre stage is the one bunch sprint of the 2026 edition. But after two GC days and with a time trial and a whopping mountain stage this weekend, the breakaways will likely be equally keen to impact.

The unofficial start is at 0910 CET with racing for real getting underway at 0918.

Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse Women.