June 19, 2026
There are not many sprinters in the race but those who are present have today as their sole opportunity for stage glory. The main problem for the fast men is the first 100 km from the start in Bad Ragaz is quite difficult. The first 2 km of the stage averages 10% before a downhill and a brief incursion into Liechtenstein. The riders will re-enter the German speaking part of Switzerland to start a loop that contains the climbs of Wildhause which is 9 km at almost 7% and the shorter Schwägalp at 4 km but with gradients over 8%. There are a few more rollers over the next 40 km but once through Appenzell, the race will descend into Altstätten for 55 flat kilometers back to Bad Ragaz and the finish. The Tissot Sprint comes in Sevelen with 17 km remaining but at this point with the time gaps so large, not many will be too concerned with a few bonus seconds. The question is whether teams can control a break without dropping their sprinters along the way to bring it all back together for a bunch finish. Stages 1 and 2 have been beautiful with a distinctly Italian flare but today's stage should offer the quintessential Swiss experience with green meadows, rolling hills, and plenty of happy cows along the route.
Race Summary
With such a hard start, some of the best climbers in the race went on the attack and had forced a gap but near the top of the Schwägalp with 95 km remaining, only Jhonatan Narváez of UAE-XRG and Xandro Meurisse of Pinarello Q36.5 remained at the front of the race. The two leaders were 1 minute 50 seconds ahead of a chase group of dropped riders from the early move. The chase contained Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious, Emiel Verstrynge of Alpecin-Premier Tech, Ewen Costiou of Groupama-FDJ United, Michał Kwiatkowski of Netcompany-Ineos, Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling, Simon Dalby of Uno-X Mobility, Aleksandr Vlasov of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Max Schachmann of Soudal Quickstep. The peloton were a further 2 minutes back, fully intact, and looking in control of the situation.
On the descent of the Schwägalp, the heavens opened up over the peloton and soaked the riders. It would have been welcomed if the timing wasn't on the fast downhill because the heat and humidity was oppressive and many had been struggling to stay cool. Once safely down the Schwägalp, the road was dry and Visma-Lease a Bike, Jayco AlUla, and NSN Cycling formed a chase to bring the race back together for Matthew Brennan, Michael Matthews, and Corbin Strong respectively. EF-Education EasyPost, Movistar, and Lidl-Trek came forward in the peloton to add men to the chase as well and near the start of the descent to Altstätten with 66 km remaining, Narváez and Meurisse had 3 minutes 45 seconds on the peloton with the chasers nearly back in the fold.
At the bottom in Altstätten, the gap to Narváez and Meurisse was still 3 minutes 40 seconds but the peloton was flying and strung out in single file. The wind picked up, the sky darkened, and heavy rain was falling in the distance across the valley. The riders reached heavy rain with 47 km to go with lightning and thunder overhead. The rain continued to hammer down until 35 km to go when the storm passed and the day brightened a little more. The gap had barely budged during this time, still hanging around 3 minutes, and Narváez and Meurisse were working seamlessly together. Visma-Lease a Bike added another man and there were at least five in the rotation. As the leaders passed through Buchs with 25 km remaining, the gap was down to 2 minutes 20 seconds. There was real drive in the peloton and time was being cut in chunks.
Narváez led through the Tissot Sprints with 17 km to go and their gap was tumbling down to just 1 minute 25 seconds. Meurisse was looking labored at this point but Narváez needed help because it was still far to go solo to the finish. Exactly 1 minute separated the leaders to the peloton with 10 km to go as the rain momentarily returned. The kilometers were ticking away and under 3 km to go, it was still 30 seconds and the fire power of the bunch looked to be dwindling. Inexplicably, the broadcast went dark and didn't come back until after the riders had finished. In the replay however, we could see that Narváez and Meurisse realized they had enough time to go for the sprint together. Narváez sat on Meurisse which was bad news for the Belgian but he also made a fatal error of his own. Instead of hugging one side of the road to force Narváez to go on one side, Meurisse was in the middle and had to look backwards on both side. At 180 meters from the line, Meurisse was looking over his right shoulder and Narváez jumped to the left. By the time Meurisse could respond, Narváez was clear and bolted across the line for stage success. Meurisse took second, just ahead of the galloping peloton, led in by Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility for third place, on the same time as Meurisse and Narváez.