Amber Kraak (FDJ-SUEZ) won stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse Women. She attacked from a long-range breakaway on the last climb of the day, dropping her companions and starting a 25-kilometre solo strike. Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime) finished second, 1:55 down, after turning into the deviation on the final kilometre but quickly realising her mistake and returning on course.
Élise Chabbey (FDJ-SUEZ) won the sprint for third against Mavi García (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney at 2:43 back, while FDJ-SUEZ's Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser (Movistar) led home the next group at just over 3 minutes.
Kraak, Lach, Carina Schrempf (Fenix-Deceuninck), Henrietta Christie (EF Education-Oatly), and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) had gone clear from the peloton 56km into the 161.7km stage.
Skalniak-Sójka lost contact on the Schallenberg climb, the other four stayed together until the Buechehübeli. Kraak had been sitting on at the back of the group, protecting the GC position of her team leader Vollering, but as their advantage over the peloton had become smaller, she decided to go for it alone on the final climb.
“I suffered really a lot [in the heat]. Last week I was still in the Women’s Tour [of Britain] with nine degrees and full of rain, so yesterday I had a really tough day. Today I felt a little bit better, but I didn’t feel like I had the best day when I was in the break.
"I had to be there to be a relay for later in the race for Demi. But in the end, the gap was so big, and then we decided to go for the win,” said Kraak.
The stage win is her second Women’s WorldTour victory after the final stage of the 2024 UAE Tour Women.
“It's really special, this is now my fourth year as a pro cyclist, and my second WorldTour win. It’s amazing that it goes this way, and especially with this team. With such good GC riders behind, you can play a bit more, and sometimes you have to work really hard, but other times you can get something back,” Kraak finished.
There were no big changes in GC where Reusser still leads by four seconds to Vollering and 1:21 to Niewiadoma-Phinney.
How it unfolded
On the way from Gstaad to the Campus Sursee in Oberkirch, the riders had to tackle three classified climbs - the long but not particularly steep Schallenberg, the steep wall of Wintermatt, and finally the 5.7km, 6.1% climb of Buechehübeli, cresting 19.3km from the finish.
The five escapees - Kraak, Lach, Schrempf, Christie and Skalniak-Sójka - quickly built a gap of several minutes, and although Skalniak-Sójka was dropped with 89km to go, the other four continued undeterred. At the Schallenberg QOM, they were 5:26 ahead, and at the intermediate sprint in Escholzmatt, this had even increased to 6:34.
The Wintermatt climb saw the peloton take up the chase for real, though, and at the top, only 4:15 separated the break from the group of about 20 riders that had stayed together on the climb. Wearing the white U23 jersey, Eleonora Ciabocco (Picnic PostNL) then attacked from the peloton on the descent and quickly gained over a minute.
At the start of the Buechehübeli climb, the four escapees were 2:50 ahead of Ciabocco and just over four minutes up on what remained of the peloton. Kraak went to the front right away and pushed hard, fracturing the group as each rider climbed at her own pace. At the QOM, Kraak had gained 1:34 on Lach while Schrempf and Christie were 3:10 behind.
Ciabocco followed at 3:28 with Niewiadoma-Phinney at 3:40. The Polish all-rounder had made two moves on the climb before finally breaking free, cresting the climb 21 seconds ahead of the other GC riders.
Niewiadoma-Phinney caught up with Ciabocco on the descent, and together they reeled in Schrempf and Christie. On the flat run-in to the finish, a group with Reusser, Vollering, Chabbey, Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), García, Noemi Rüegg, and Cédrine Kerbaol (both EF Education-Oatly) came back, forming a group of 11 riders.
Kerbaol tried to get away but only succeeded in stringing the group out in single file. García launched her move and got a gap, with Niewiadoma-Phinney and Chabbey bridging to the Spaniard. This trio crossed the finish line 30 seconds ahead of the others, taking back some time in GC. Up front, though, Kraak’s stage victory was never in doubt.
Results
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