Rampant Elise Chabbey seals Romandie Féminin GC as Blanka Vas takes stage 3
It was a tense finish to the 2025 edition with the fight for the yellow jersey still very much hanging in the balance.
Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez) won the general classification at the Tour de Romandie Féminin as Blanka Vas sprinted to victory on the final stage
It was a nail-biting final stage of the race, with Chabbey able to distance the race leader, Urška Žigart, on the final climb, before a game of cat and mouse ensued in the final 10km.
Chabbey was followed by stage 1 winner Paula Blasi on the climb, and was joined on the descent by the Hungarian champion Vas, with the yellow jersey group within touching distance.
In the end, the trio held on, and Vas sprinted to the stage win, while Chabbey had done enough to turn the tables in the GC with the yellow jersey group finishing 11 seconds behind.
This result marks the first GC victory in the professional career of Elise Chabbey, who has now taken four out of her five professional wins on home soil in Switzerland.
Chabbey's final margin of victory was seven seconds over Žigart, while Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) remained third in GC at 20 seconds.
How it unfolded
A group of 13 riders headed the front of the race, with Laura Stigger (SD Worx-Protime) the closest threat in the general classification at 3:19.
The breakaway split up on the climb of La Rasse with around 25km to go, where Claire Steels (Movistar) claimed the QOM points to move ahead of Urška Žigart at the top of the mountains standings.
At this point, the gap between the reduced breakaway and peloton was around 30 seconds. The seven remaining breakaway riders included Stigger, Steels, Nina Buijsman (FDJ Suez), Malena Amialiusik and Greta Marturano (UAE Team ADQ), Ashleigh Moolman (AG Insurance-Soudal), and Margot Vanpachtenbeke (VolkerWessels).
Behind in the peloton, there were attacks, but none were able to stick until Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco) bridged across to the break with 15km remaining, but the group was caught not too shortly after.
Stage 1 winner, Paula Blasi, had her UAE Team ADQ teammates pacing on the front, with Erica Magnaldi launching a move which split the peloton into pieces
Magnaldi was setting a strong pace for Blasi, with Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez), Yara Katelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck), and Žigart supported by her teammate Mireia Benito in the front group.
Chabbey attacked on a hairpin towards the summit, and this put the yellow jersey in trouble, with only Blasi able to follow. The duo were able to create a 15-second gap over Žigart, Kastelijn, and Magnaldi, with the second group swelling in size.
On the descent, Žigart suffered a problem, which saw her concede more time to the front of the race. Meanwhile, Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) used her supreme technical skills to bridge across to the front duo.
Chabbey was committed to riding on the front to try and seal the GC with Blasi and Vas able to take that little bit of extra respite whilst still pulling with a stage win on the cards, whilst Benito was in the group behind to support Žigart and contribute to the chase.
It was too late, however, with Vas comfortably sprinting to the stage win, whilst Chabbey finished 3rd on the day but took the all-important yellow jersey.
