Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM) won stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse Women Women in a mass sprint in Bad Ragaz.
After a perfect lead-out from her team, the Welshwoman beat Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) and Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal) by several bike lengths.
A strong breakaway of eight riders including Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), eighth overall going into the stage, was never allowed a gap of more than two minutes, and they were reeled in just before the bonus sprint with 17km to go.
Laura Asencio (Ma Petite Entreprise) attacked soon after and briefly had a 25-second advantage but was also brought back 8km from the finish. A crash with 4km to go saw Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez) go down.
The stage ended in a mass sprint where Bäckstedt had the best acceleration, launching from nearly 300 metres out and opening a sizable gap on the finishing straight to take the victory.
“My whole team did an amazing job today. Truly, I couldn’t have done it without them," Bäckstedt said.
"I was a bit nervous when that break went and we didn’t have anyone in it, but it was controlled quite nicely, and we managed to bring it back with just enough time before the finish. And then the girls did such an amazing lead-out for me."
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Having won a stage in the sprint, the U23 ITT world champion is also targeting the stage 4 time trial.
"It’s going to be super hard, also with the heat. It’s been super brutal every day with the heat and the climbing. But I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, it should hopefully be a good day for myself again,” she said.
How it unfolded
Starting and finishing in Bad Ragaz, the 120.8km stage was almost completely flat, certainly by Swiss standards, with the 2.5km St. Luzisteig right after the start and the 1km, 10% ascent to Kobelwald after 50km being the only climbs of the day.
Megan Arens (Picnic PostNL) went away on the unclassified St. Luzisteig, and 20km into the stage, she was joined by seven chasers: Le Court-Pienaar, Alice Towers (EF Education-Oatly), Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-Suez), Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek), Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco), Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime), and Katharina Sadnik (Visma-Lease a Bike).
As Le Court-Pienaar was only 1:13 minutes behind yellow jersey Elisa Longo Borghini, the latter’s UAE Team ADQ was careful not to let the break get to far ahead. The eight escapees’ advantage maxed out at two minutes with 77km to go, and this came down to 1:22 minutes at the top of the Kobelwald climb.
Le Court (right) was the prominent figure in the day's break (Image credit: Getty Images)
Although the gap went out a bit again, UAE Team ADQ got help from Canyon-SRAM and Human Powered Health in the chase, and at the 25km to go mark, the break was only 45 seconds ahead. Adegeest launched an attack from the break that was followed by Le Court-Pienaar, Markus bridged to them and then attacked herself, but the group came back together again – only Arens had to let go and was quickly caught by the peloton.
Markus jumped again with 18.3km to go and immediately got a gap on the others who were then also reeled in by the bunch while Markus won the first of two Tissot-sponsored bonus sprints within a kilometre but was caught before the second. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) picked up three bonus seconds in the two sprints while Longo Borghini only took a one-second bonus.
Longo Borghini's teammates control the peloton (Image credit: Getty Images)
After the bonus sprints, Asencio tried her luck with a solo attack 15.4km from the finish. She had a 25-second advantage with 12.5km to go, but when the sprinters’ teams took up the chase, the gap was closed quickly, and Asencio was reeled in 9km from the line.
At the 4km to go mark, Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez) clipped her pedal on the road barriers which sent her somersaulting over the handlebars, hitting her head on the barriers. Sadnik crashed into Dickson’s bike while Morgane Coston (Ma Petite Entreprise), Sara Martín (Movistar) and Annika Liehner (Swiss national team) were held up by the crash.
1.5km from the line, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) brought her teammates Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka and Backstedt to the very front of the peloton, handing over to Skalniak-Sójka on the last kilometre.
Bäckstedt chose not to stay in her teammate’s wheel but drifted back a few spots and then launched her sprint from behind just inside the 300m mark, quickly getting up to speed on the slightly-downhill finishing straight and opening a gap that ensured her stage victory.
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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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