Wide open Tour de Suisse Women as Demi Vollering skips race to prepare for Tour de France Femmes - Analysing the contenders

The Tour de Suisse Women just became more open since professional cycling's most dominant rider, Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ), opted to forego the race after having to dig deep to win the Giro d'Italia Women last week.

FDJ United-SUEZ confirmed to Cyclingnews that Vollering will skip the Tour de Suisse to rest before she ramps up toward the Tour de France Femmes, which starts on August 1.

"We've jointly decided to introduce a recovery block, [is] in order to prepare her as well as possible for her upcoming goals," the team stated, according to IDLProcycling. "We'd like to thank the organisers for their understanding."

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Vollering, who won the Volta de la Comunitat Valenciana in February before a successful Spring Classics campaign – that included victories in Omloop Nieuwsblad, the Tour of Flanders, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège – only had a short break before winning the Giro d'Italia.

Other riders opting out of the Tour de Suisse include Vollering's teammate Elise Chabbey, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-ProTime) but several other favourites have emerged ahead of the five-stage Women's WorldTour race.

With a flat 23.7-kilometre individual time trial and a final day with over 3,000 metres of climbing culminating on the summit at Villars-sur-Ollon, the Tour de Suisse Women contenders will have to exhibit top-notch power across both flat terrain and soaring mountains.

Final start lists weren't out yet at the time of writing, but from among those expected to be on the line Cyclingnews has picked a few obvious candidates and also some riders with the capacity to surprise.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM)

The Polish rider has had an agonising time since fending off Vollering on Alpe d'Huez to win the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, with no fewer than five second-place finishes, and more podiums or near-podium finishes, but just a single victory on the road – Poland's 2025 National Championships road race.

If it wasn't Vollering (European Championships and Omloop), it was the Dutch rider's teammate Elise Chabbey (Strade Bianche), or Movistar's Marlen Reusser (Tour de Suisse), relegating Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney to second place.

In the Tour de Suisse, Niewiadoma-Phinney will need to focus on whatever she can gain on stronger time trialists early in the race and the final stage, since there is only one pure climber's day.

There are two opportunities for the 31-year-old to eke out a few seconds here and there with a couple of her signature attacks. On stage 1, the Bordighi climb across the border in Italy pitches up to almost 12% and is 1.1km long, coming just six kilometres from the finish.

Stage 2 has two climbs in the last 15km, the Fanghi ascent (3.5km at 7%) and Orselina (1.4km at 8.8%), but has a longer, flat run-in to Locarno after the final descent.

Since flat-line power isn't Niewiadoma's forté, she will have to limit her losses in the stage 4 time trial that comes after a flat sprinter's stage, and then go for broke on the final day, a circuit starting and ending in Villars-sur-Ollon – midway up the Col de la Croix – that covers the entire ascent twice.

Niewiadoma-Phinney wasn't at her best in the Vuelta Femenina, finishing eighth overall, more than three minutes adrift of winner Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ), but has had a solid month to ramp up for the Tour de Suisse and remains a top contender.

Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)

The Italian champion had a rough spring, falling ill after winning the UAE Tour and Trofeo Oro in Euro and missing out on races such as Milan-San Remo and the Spanish stage races in May, but throughout the Giro d'Italia she improved.

Setting her sights realistically on a top-five overall, Longo Borghini met her goal with an aggressive final stage in which she went on the attack to win ahead of Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) and Vollering.

Longo Borgnini is equally aggressive as Niewiadoma-Phinney on shorter, punchy climbs and will be tough to shake. She also might have a better chance than Niewiadoma in the stage 4 time trial. While she hasn't competed in a time trial over 20km since the 2023 Tour de Suisse, and finished well off the pace in the 12.7km test in the Giro, Longo Borghini is an accomplished time trialist who lost only 16 seconds to Marlen Reusser during a similar test in the 2023 Tour de Suisse.

Seeming to be inching back to her best in the mountains during the Giro d'Italia, but not quite there on the longer climb of the Finestre, the final stage could go either way for Longo Borghini, depending on her health. But the 34-year-old always gives her best and can't be counted out in the Tour de Suisse.

Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team)

The winner of the Tour de Suisse in 2023 and 2025, Marlen Reusser, is the home country's best chance at the overall victory again this year, especially considering the return of the individual time trial.

But Reusser has had a tough year, too. She had to pull out of the UAE Tour after a crash on stage 2 left her with stitches to her knee and hand. She then fractured several vertebrae in a crash during the Tour of Flanders, which kept her out of competition until the Giro.

She showed a remarkable recovery, taking second to Van der Breggen in the time trial, but was unable to remain in contention for the final Giro d'Italia podium in the mountains, and finished 13th overall.

The stage 4 Tour de Suisse time trial is Reusser's to lose, as the starter with the most prolific record in the discipline. The only question is if she can gain enough time to act as a buffer if she struggles on the Col de la Croix.

With a few more weeks to bounce back fully and a somewhat less demanding parcours, Reusser is definitely a contender for the final podium.

Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ)

Don't rule FDJ United-Suez out of the running at the Tour de Suisse just because Vollering isn't going to be on the start line. Among the riders that are often found supporting her in the climbs at key events are also a number of strong contenders in their own right. Juliette Berthet (née Labous) is one of the prime examples.

The rider who came second overall at the Giro d'Italia in 2023 and fourth at the Tour de France Femmes in 2022 delivered a reminder of just how ably she could manage on the testing climbing stages when she was working for her own results at the Vuelta Femenina this year. Berthet finished third atop L'Angliru and took fifth overall, despite having to work into the race given she had a cold beforehand.

The stage that stands out as one where the French rider can really get the advantage is, of course, the final climb-heavy day, but also working in her favour is that she isn't too shabby in a time trial either.

The 27-year-old was seventh and sixth at the World and European Championships individual time trials last year and took fourth in the discipline at the Olympic Games in Paris. It's not an area where she is expected to be able to compete with Reusser, but there is plenty of reason to think she can snare an advantage on some of her other climbing specialist rivals. In fact, her fourth place in the time trial at the Tour de Suisse in 2024 was what helped her into the top five overall.

Femke de Vries (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Visma-Lease a Bike's Femke de Vries may not exactly have a record at the Tour de Suisse Women that would immediately make her an obvious addition to the top contenders list, having come 16th last year and 13th the year before. Still, it's hard to go past a rider who was third behind Longo Borghini in the UAE Tour this year and finished sixth overall in the Giro d'Italia. That's especially the case when De Vries was the best of the rest behind Vollering on the Finestre in the Giro, finishing fifth on the stage behind the pink jersey group, and then she matched Van der Breggen in her pursuit of Vollering's group on the final stage.

The 32-year-old has yet to chalk up a pro victory, but has a long list of top-five results in stage races and really appears to have stepped up a level this season on the climbs. What's more, she has a solid time trial, so with a little luck thrown in as well, she could be up there in the Tour de Suisse.

Outsiders

Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Premier Tech)

Winner of the Vuelta a Burgos and runner-up in the Itzulia Women, Kastelijn has made strides in the Women's WorldTour in recent years.

The Dutch rider's biggest win to date was stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes in 2023, when she soloed into Rodez after being the only rider left of a 151-kilometre breakaway to hold off the group of GC riders.

Last month, Kastelijn put in a stunning performance on the brutal climb of Lagunas de Neila in the Vuelta a Burgos, winning by 16 seconds over Évita Muzic (FDJ United-SUEZ).

The time trial will be a thorn in the 28-year-old's side, however. Although as a cyclo-cross racer, she's capable of putting out strong flat-line power, it's not a discipline where she has put much focus. But, as a rider like Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini who likes to attack on tough climbing stages, she could use that terrain to make up for any time trial issues and remain an overall contender.

Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal)

The Tour de Suisse is a race where the Slovenian has a strong record, finishing inside the top ten in 2023 and 2024 before ramping it up and moving into the top five last year. Urška Žigart is an all-rounder who has proven that she can be up there in the punchy stages and not drop the ball in the time trial, delivering consistent performances that have quietly shifted her up the ranks.

That has been a pattern repeated this year in the opening two Grand Tours, though what seems to have been amped up in recent seasons is her performance on the climbs. The Tour de Romandie last year, where she delivered second overall, was clear evidence of that, as was her seventh at L'Angliru at the Vuelta Femenina in 2026, where she came sixth overall. If she can slot that extra piece of the puzzle into place on the final stage of the Tour de Suisse, Žigart could be looking beyond the top five and toward the podium.

Jasmin Liechti (Switzerland)

While the last two entries are names that may be circling the upper edge of the outsider category, the next two are names that are certainly not as prominent, not yet at least. Firstly, there is the 23-year-old racing for the Swiss National Team, Jasmin Liechti.

Normally racing for the small Continental team Nexetis, Liechti hasn't competed in many WorldTour races but has done the Tour de Suisse and Tour de Romandie in the past.

She landed on our radar after winning the overall Bretagne Ladies Tour thanks to an impressive individual time trial victory, averaging over 42kph. With wins in the Gracia stage race and three one-day race wins this year, it will be interesting to see how she fares compared to previous years, when she was well outside of the top 40.

Talia Appleton (Liv AlUla Jayco)

The Australian was actually meant to be racing with the Continental development squad this year, but the young rider was quick to prove that she was capable of performing at the top level and last month got bumped up to the WorldTour Team.

Talia Appleton had proven her stripes at home before launching into Europe, jumping to prominence with a victory on top of Tawonga Gap at the Tour of Bright in 2024, then consistently being a top performer in the ProVelo Super League in 2025 before getting a chance in Europe and taking third overall at the Tour de l'Avenir.

Now, in 2026, she is entering the Tour de Suisse fresh from her promotion to the WorldTour team and also with a first professional win in the books, after earlier this month clinching the Alpes Gresivaudan Classic. The Tour de Suisse is not Appleton's first WorldTour-level race in Europe, that was Itzulia Women, but it is her first with a summit finish. It will be intriguing to see how she fares against the top-level field in terrain that plays to her climbing strength.