With the high mountains rearing up on stage five, today’s race represents the last chance for sprinters such as Tom Boonen, Robbie McEwen, Oscar Freire and Erik Zabel to take an important pre-Tour victory against their green jersey rivals. On paper the stage looks moderate enough for a bunch sprint but the climbs in this Tour de Suisse climbs have perhaps proved tougher than their ranking suggests, so anything could happen.
The 161.3 kilometre route from Niederbipp to La Chaux-de-Fonds features a bonus sprint after 75.3 kilometres on Mont Soleil. Both the name and the profile map suggest that this is a climb but it has not be classified accordingly. The second bonus sprint comes at La Ferrière, 101.4 kilometres in, while third categorie climbs await at Vue des Alpes and Col de la Tourne (118.8 km and 143.4 kilometres respectively).
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Tour de France Femmes 2026: All the yellow cards, fines, and penalties after stage 3
A day of plenty of action on the road day three but all quiet on the sanctions front after two days of bidon fines and sidewalk warnings -
Extra clothing checks at Tour de France Femmes after reports riders may be padding bras for aero gains
Jury warns that particular attention will be paid to items of clothing that 'could modify riders' morphology' before stage 4 TT -
Tour de France Femmes stage 4 time trial start times – Bäckstedt, Reusser, Vollering among second half of starters taking on 21km ITT
First rider sets off at 2:51 p.m. local time, with yellow jersey last off at 5:28 p.m. -
'The goal is to minimise the loss' – Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney fully realistic about Tour de France Femmes time trial abilities
Polish rider sees opportunities to make up for any time losses later in race
