Five conclusions from the 2025 Tour de Suisse Women - Domestique Debrief

Whilst avoiding Switzerland’s high mountains, this course was still hilly enough to give Demi Vollering the famous ‘domestique 5-star favourite rating’ over the home hero Marlen Reusser, prior to the race. 

However, throughout the week, Vollering was unable to distance Reusser on any climbs, leaving the race to be decided in more tactical moments. During stage 1, with the rest of the field minutes behind, Reusser held her nerve and sat in the slipstream of Vollering for the sprint, managing to hold her power longer to claim a surprise win and yellow jersey against the three-time grand tour champion. 

After some handy teamwork from FDJ-Suez brought the gap down to three seconds, the two favourites once again found themselves together out front in the finale of stage 4, now joined by Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto). This time, Reusser’s long-range attack worked as Vollering spent those crucial first few seconds looking at Niewiadoma-Phinney to close the gap. As the peloton has learnt by now, if you let that Swiss engine ride away solo, you’re not going to see her again. 

Unfortunately, after some recent cycling tragedies in the country, Switzerland has come under criticism once again for its safety measures. Whilst there were some changes introduced to improve this, and the addition of GPS trackers on bikes to track when riders stop moving should be welcomed, the news was not all positive. 

At various moments in the race, parked cars could be seen on the side of the roads. This can be managed to a certain extent, but it should not be a standard that these riders have to accept. In one terrifying moment, a car was attempting to pull out onto the road in front of the breakaway. There is certainly still some work to be done. 

A relatively anonymous race for SD Worx-Protime completes what has been a very difficult month of stage racing for the Dutch team. Following on from what was ultimately an unsuccessful Tour of Britain compared to their objectives, the hopes of putting that right were dashed in Switzerland. 

Second-place finishes for Marta Lach (SD Worx-Protime) in stage 2 and Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime) in stage 3, alongside the mountain jersey for Lach, are simply not enough for a team with the pedigree and expectations of SD Worx. Of course, they lost an incredible amount of talent over the winter, including - ironically - the two protagonists of this race. Over the Classics, however, it felt like they managed those losses well, with Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes still picking up wins in most of the important races. 

I’m sure even SD Worx themselves were expecting better performances and results from these stage races and I think it really exposes the lack of depth they had behind those top stage racers that were lost.

AG Insurance-Soudal found themselves in a tough situation on the last climb of the final stage. Sarah Gigante, with clearly superior legs and looking like she could keep up with the front group, was also vying for the Queen of the Mountains classification, which would require a top-three finish at the top. On the other hand, the team had Urška Žigart (AG Insurance-Soudal), higher in the general classification and fighting for a top-five place overall. 

The team ultimately chose to prioritise the GC and Gigante’s crucial help on the climb, and the flat run to the line secured an important fifth-place general classification finish for Žigart. Her work was so important that the gap to Cédrine Kerbaol, who was ahead on the road, was just two seconds in the GC. 

The reason for this decision to prioritise a seemingly minor GC placing over a jersey is UCI points. There are 40 points between each place at that point in the GC, while the mountain classification does not give any points. In the relegation battle, you never know when the points are going to come, so it is understandable that AG Insurance chose to prioritise that.

Not only did Reusser announce herself as a top contender for the Tour De France Femmes avec Zwift, but on the climbs, this race proved how equal many of the top riders are. While Reusser and Vollering broke away several times and the gaps were large, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Fisher-Black, Gigante and Kastelijn were never dropped by the big two going uphill. This shows that the GC race could have been much closer, and Le Tour won’t necessarily be dominated by those ex-SD Worx riders. With many other notable contenders missing from this race, it sets up what could be the most intriguing Tour de France Femmes yet.