Marlen Reusser of Team Movistar has successfully repeated her victory from last year’s Tour de Suisse Women. Following the individual time trial on Stage 4, the Swiss rider also won Stage 5, a 100-kilometre race to the mountain finish in Villars-sur-Ollon, thereby defending the yellow jersey. Over the final 800 metres, Reusser pulled decisively away from her last two companions, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon – SRAM) and Cedrine Kerbaol (EF Education – Oatley). For Reusser, this is her third overall victory in her home tour, following those in 2023 and 2025.
“To be honest, I couldn’t have hoped for anything better. I’m absolutely delighted with how everything went. I didn’t come into the tour with the greatest confidence,” said Reusser at the finish line. She had recently been sidelined for two months following a crash.
Seven seconds behind, second place on the stage went to Kerbaol, with Niewiadoma finishing in a tie for third. The pair also took second and third places in the overall standings in that order. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE – ADQ) crossed the finish line 9 minutes and 56 seconds behind and dropped from second to ninth place in the general classification.
Femke de Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike) secured the mountains jersey, Kerbaol was named best young rider and Reusser won the points classification. The highest-placed German rider in the general classification was Franziska Koch (FDJ United – Suez) in 24th place.
Stage 5 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse Women – Results
Here’s how Stage 5 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse Women went:
The stage began straight away with the climb to the Col de la Croix. Despite numerous attacks, however, a leading group only formed later, spearheaded by Franziska Koch (FDJ United – Suez), who broke away on the descent 80 kilometres from the finish. Her lead never exceeded three minutes.
Behind the German champion, several chasing groups formed, including riders such as Nienke Vinke (Team SD Worx – Protime), Nina Buijsman (Human Powered Health), Lea Curinier (FDJ United – SUEZ) and Celia Le Mouel (Ma Petite Entreprise). However, the group was unable to catch up with Koch.
On the first full ascent of the Col de la Croix, halfway through the race, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE – ADQ) was the first to attack from the group of favourites on the climb. Shortly afterwards, Femke de Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike) attacked, taking Megan Arens (Team Picnic PostNL), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon – SRAM), Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education – EasyPost) and Marlen Reusser (Movistar) in the yellow jersey. Koch had already been caught by this point. Reusser, De Vries, Arens, Niewiadoma and Kerbaol reached the summit of the Col de la Croix with a lead of over a minute over Longo Borghini.
On the descent, Arens dropped back into the chasing group led by Longo Borghini. The gap between the two groups hovered around one minute throughout, before the riders tackled the ten-kilometre-long final climb. After the pace was stepped up, Kerbaol and de Vries dropped back from the leading group, whilst Reusser stayed on Niewiadoma’s wheel.
Behind them, Kim Le Court (AG Insurance – Soudal) set off in pursuit and caught up with de Vries on the climb. At the Flamme Rouge, Kerbaol, leading the pack, closed in on Reusser and Niewiadoma once again. However, neither Niewiadoma nor Kerbaol were able to respond to Reusser’s decisive surge 800 metres from the finish.
