Marlen Reusser (Movistar) has won the 2025 Tour de Suisse Women. Wearing the yellow jersey since her stage 1 victory, the 33-year-old Swiss allrounder won the final stage to seal her GC victory.
Reusser set the pace on the final climb, the steep Michaelskreuzstrasse, then attacked after the descent with 9.5km to go and soloed to the finish to conclude a big stage race win in style.
28 seconds down, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) beat Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) in the sprint for second place, but Vollering finishes overall runner-up, 36 seconds down, ahead of Niewiadoma-Phinney, who finishes 1:56 off Reusser.
"It's great, I'm really, really, really happy," Reusser said after the finish.
Having missed much of the 2024 season due to post-Covid syndrome, Reusser is now back at the top and prefers to focus on the here and now.
"I'm just back in life and super happy. On a day like today, I don't think about last year. I just enjoy this day, and I really enjoyed the race. I enjoyed the crowd, I was very impressed how many people we had at the side of the road, I heard my name and encouragement all over the place, it was really, really nice," she said.
More and more, Reusser is emerging as the top challenger for Vollering.
"I think we have this rivalry the whole year, and I'm just making so many steps at this moment, I'm really levelling up a lot, and I think it will keep being interesting," finished Reusser.
Tour de Suisse women final GC podium (l-r): second place Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez). winner Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and third place Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram zondacrypto) (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
Peloton climbs the Michaelskreuzstrasse (774m) (Image credit: Getty Images)
The 129.4km stage starting and finishing in Küssnacht began with a circuit that included the climbs of the Adligenwilerstrasse and Michaelskreuzstrasse followed by a mainly-flat loop alongside Lake Zug, Lake Lauerz and Lake Luzern before finishing with another lap of the Adligenwilerstrasse and Michaelskreuzstrasse.
Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime) led the peloton over the first Adligenwilerstrasse QOM, and this would eventually be enough to win her the red mountain jersey. Afterwards, a break of five riders got away, but only Afghan champion Fariba Hashimi (Ceratizit) was left at the front at the top of the steep Michaelskreuzstrasse, less than 30 seconds ahead of the peloton.
After Hashimi was caught, 11 riders briefly formed a new front group, then Mikayla Harvey (SD Worx-Protime) and Neve Bradbury (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) held a five-second gap for about ten kilometres.
Henrietta Christie (EF Education-Oatly) attacked with 64km to go and quickly built a 55-second advantage, but continuing attacks in the peloton and FDJ-Suez setting Vollering up for the two bonus sprints within a kilometre of each other brought the gap down to 13 seconds.
Christie won both bonus sprints, Vollering snatched two bonus seconds in the first one while Reusser took the remaining one-second bonification.
Steffi Häberlin (SD Worx-Protime) and Julia Borgström (AG Insurance-Soudal) then attacked between the two sprints, taking the bonus seconds at the second sprint and bridging to Christie soon after.
At the Adligenwilerstrasse QOM, Häberlin, Borgström, and Christie were 24 seconds ahead of the chasing peloton where Lidl-Trek and FDJ-Suez did most of the work, reeling in the break with 19km to go, just before the foot of the Michaelskreuzstrasse.
Loes Adegeest (FDJ-Suez) leads the breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
Climbing 3.9km at an average 9.1%, it was a fierce climb to decide the race, and Reusser took charge right away, setting the pace from the bottom. Halfway up, only Niewiadoma-Phinney, Vollering, and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) remained with Reusser, but Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), Sarah Gigante, and Urška Žigart (both AG Insurance-Soudal) managed to return one kilometre from the top.
An acceleration by Fisher-Black could not drop any of the other eight riders, but when Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked 500 metres from the QOM point, the group fractured as only Fisher-Black, Reusser, and Vollering could follow.
These four riders crested the climb together, and Niewiadoma-Phinney and Reusser pushed hard on the descent. Fisher-Black was dropped, but Vollering stayed with them. Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked again with 11km to go, quickly getting a gap as Reusser let Vollering do the chasing.
Reusser then attacked from behind, and Vollering was unable to reply to her acceleration as the Swiss yellow jersey flew past Niewiadoma-Phinney. At the finish line, Reusser had opened a gap of 28 seconds and could celebrate the stage as well as the overall victory.
With two stage victories, she also won the black points jersey. Bunel leapfrogged Eleonora Ciabocco (Picnic PostNL) in GC to win the white U23 jersey, Lidl-Trek took the team classification.
Marlen Reussser (Movistar) attacks on final climb (Image credit: Getty Images)
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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