Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) won stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse Women, beating Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) by a few centimetres in a sprint that went down to a photo finish.
Balsamo launched her sprint 250 metres from the finish and raised her left arm just before the finish line, but Bredewold came from behind on the final metres to make it a very close call.
The Italian held on to win though, coming away with her fifth win of the year. Swiss champion Noemi Rüegg (EF Education-Oatly) rounded out the podium in third.
Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) had attacked right after the start of the stage and stayed ahead of the peloton for almost 90km, her advantage maxing out at 1:45 minutes.
The Olympic champion was caught with 34km to go when riders jumped from the peloton on the false flat after the Aegeristrasse climb. These new attacks were quickly reeled in, though, and although there were more attacks on the run-in to Küssnacht, the stage came down to a sprint from a group of 34 riders.
The GC contenders finished safely among the main group, with Marlen Reusser (Movistar) retaining the race lead by four seconds over Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) ahead of Sunday’s final stage.
Results
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