After two challenging hilly stages, Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) lies in eighth place overall in the Tour de Suisse Women, only 1:13 minutes behind GC leader Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ).
In spite of this relatively small gap, stage 3 saw her in the break of the day, but the 30-year-old said that she ended up in the front group almost by accident.
“It wasn't planned, but I was in the front [of the peloton], and I didn't make an effort when I went. I was on the wheels. There was eight of us there, so I just rolled with it,” she told CyclingPro after the stage.
Le Court-Pienaar and her breakmates, including Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ), Alice Towers (EF Education-EasyPost), and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv-AlUla-Jayco), were swept up by the peloton with 17.5km left to run.
She still had enough left in the tank to work for her teammate, Shari Bossuyt, in the sprint finish, too, leading the peloton in the final kilometre before Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) blasted to a dominant victory.
"It was really hectic. I lost my teammates in the final. They did a really good lead-out, but I wasn't there, so I'm a bit disappointed in that. Zoe came with a lot of speed, so I think she deserved it," Bossuyt said after taking third on the stage.
"I think I actually did a good sprint. I was second or third – I don't know, but I was really close with Lily [Williams]. I think the shape is good and we need to go further with that."
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AG Insurance-Soudal may not have delivered a result on stage 3, but Le Court-Pienaar can still be hopeful with a time trial and mountain stage left to run. The Mauritian champion took fourth and sixth in the opening two days of her first race back following a lengthy injury lay-off.
In March, she crashed in Milano-San Remo but got off easily, yet two weeks later in the Tour of Flanders, she was less lucky and fractured her wrist, requiring surgery. This meant a 10-week break from racing to allow her injury to heal, preventing Le Court-Pienaar from defending her 2025 Liège-Bastogne-Liège title.
Now she and her strikingly colourful Mauritian champion’s jersey are back in the peloton – or ahead of the peloton – and she enjoyed the experience of riding in the breakaway.
“I had fun in the front, and it was good training to be in the break. Normally, I can never do that, so it was nice,” said Le Court-Pienaar.
With her return to racing going well, her big goal for the summer is the Tour de France Femmes in early August, where she won a stage and wore the yellow jersey for four days in 2025.
Kim Le Court-Pienaar - Interview at the finish - Stage 3 - Tour de Suisse Women 2026 - YouTube
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Lukas Knöfler started working in cycling communications in 2013 and has seen the inside of the scene from many angles. Having worked as press officer for teams and races and written for several online and print publications, he has been Cyclingnews’ Women’s WorldTour correspondent since 2018.
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