As it happened: Yellow jersey digs deep on the mountains in stage 5 of Tour de Suisse Women
The final stage in Villars-sur-Ollon brings the riders over 3,000m of elevation, where the overall winner will be crowned
Tour de Suisse Women - Everything you need to know
Wide open Tour de Suisse Women - Analysing the contenders
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Results
Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the fifth and final stage of the Tour de Suisse Women 2026.
The neutral roll out will be at 9am CEST, with the official flag drop at 9:02am CEST. The stage today starts halfway up the Col de la Croix, so there should be action right from the start.
A reminder of who our classification leaders are going into the final stage:
GC: Marlen Reusser
Points: Zoe Bäckstedt
QoM: Femke de Vries
Youth: Cédrine Kerbaol
The stage is underway in Villars-sur-Ollon.
Before the action begins, check out our report from yesterday's TT if you need a quick refresher.
The peloton is approaching the top of Col de la Croix for the first time, where there will be a fight for the mountain classifaction points. Femke de Vries (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) currently leads on 13 points, with Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Megan Arens (Team Picnic PostNL) close behind on 7.
The peloton seems to be breaking up now. Megan Arens (Team Picnic PostNL) has broken free of the peloton and has a gap of 30 seconds.
Maeva Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) has attacked from the peloton too and is 20 seconds behind Arens (Team Picnic PostNL).
Squiban (UAE Team ADQ) and Arens (Team Picnic PostNL) have both been caught by a reduced peloton. Arens did cross the top of the Col de la Croix first though, bringing her up to 13 points in the mountain classification, only 3 points behind Femke de Vries (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) on 16 points.
There is a group of ten riders currently leading. It includes Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM).
Franziska Koch (FDJ United - SUEZ) is in the lead with a gap of 12 seconds.
Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health), Nienke Vinke (Team SD Worx - Protime) and Jasmin Liechti (NEXETIS) are chasing Koch and are at 11 seconds. Another group of three is at 25 seconds, and the remains of the peloton are at 30.
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The two groups of three have merged and are 12 seconds behind Koch. The yellow jersey group are now at +1:35.
The peloton is 2:10 back as they approach they prepare for their second climb up the Col de la Croix.
Koch has a 40 second gap to the group of six going into the second ascent of Col de la Croix.
Franziska Koch must be feeling amazing because the gap to the chase group is now 1:25, and the gap to the yellow jersey group is two and a half minutes. There are some attacks coming out of the yellow jersey so we'll have to wait and see if they can close the gap.
The GC riders are still mostly together, but I would be surprised if we got to the top of this climb without somebody trying to change that.
Marlen Reusser (Movistar) looks like she is struggling in the heat.
"I think Elisa should try something because she is only 10 seconds behind, and then I think there should be a fight also for the other podium spots because it's quite tight and I also think The GC order we have now is not representing a stage like today. We didn't have this big climbing stage so I think here you make bigger differences, it's different people that can be even faster, so I guess they will atack each other also." Marlen Reusser said to CyclingProNet
The yellow jersey group have caught the chase group and closed the gap to just 1:02. Liane Lippert (Movistar) has been dropped, leaving Reusser without any teammates.
Sarah Van Dam (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) has been dropped.
Femke De Vries (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) attacks! Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) and Megan Arens (Team Picnic PostNL). A gap has opened up to Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Koch has been caught and dropped.
At just 19 years old, this is an incredible ride from Megan Arens.
Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) has bridged her way to the lead group.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) is on the front of a chasing group of five, trying to pull it back into contention, but the gap to the lead group has gone out to 52 seconds.
Femke De Vries attacks again and a gap opened up to Megan Arens and Cédrine Kerbaol. They have managed to fight back on to the back of the group, but this could be a sign of this to come for Kerbaol and Arens if more attacks keep coming from this lead group.
Megan Arens attacked in search of QoM points but was chased down by Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. Niewiadoma-Phinney started the stage 1:49 down in the GC and will need to press on in this descent if she wants to drop Reusser and improve her GC standing.
Megan Arens has been dropped by the lead group as they begin the second descent of Col de la Croix.
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Femke De Vries has won the Queen of the Mountains jersey.
Megan Arens has been caught by the Longo Borghini group. The gap is currently 55 seconds.
The gap between the lead group and the chase group is remaining steady now at around a minute. The lead group seem to be working well together and won't want the chase group to make up any more time before they reach the bottom of the climb.
Good to see the fans are enjoying themselves.
The riders are cooling themselves down as much as possible before the attacks start.
Kim Le Court (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) attacks from the chase group and is now only 35 seconds behind the yellow jersey group.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney is putting in incremental attacks that are distancing Femke De Vries and Cédrine Kerbaol, but Marlen Reusser is still right on her wheel.
Elisa Longo Borghini is really struggling now and is 3 minutes back. We'll have to wait and see exactly how many GC spots this costs her, but she will be off the podium at the end of today.
At this point it feels safe to say that Marlen Reusser will win the Tour de Suisse Women 2026 today, but the battle for the stage could still go either way between Reusser and Niewiadoma-Phinney. Cédrine Kerbaol is still trying to close the gap but it seems unlikely given how comfortable our two leaders look. The gap is currently 22 seconds.
Reusser attacks but Niewiadoma-Phinney managed to respond and stick with her, albeit slightly slowly.
Our leading duo are slowing slightly and looking at each other, whcih could be exactly what Kerbaol needs to close the gap. Kim Le Court also has the lead riders in her sights now.
The gap to Kerbaol is now 12 seconds and only 23 seconds to Kim Le Court. Such an impressive comeback for Le Court.
1km to go
Cédrine Kerbaol is just fighting back on to the back of the lead group as we pass 1km to go.
Cédrine Kerbaol attacks but is followed. Reusser counterattacks and has opened up a gap and is now solo.
Marlen Reusser crosses the line to take her second stage win of the Tour de Suisse Women 2026, and her third GC win at this race.
Cédrine Kerbaol outsprints Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney to take second in the stage and moves up into second in the GC.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has climbed her way onto the GC podium.
Great to see Marlen Reusser, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Kim Le Court congratulating each other after that incredible stage.
Marlen Reusser and Movistar DS Kelvin Dekker. It's a team sport.
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. 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.
Marlen Reusser
Okay, that's us done for the day. Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of stage 5 and for the entire Tour de Suisse Women 2026.
