Neve Bradbury and Kasia Niewiadoma capped off a superb ride to finish 1-2 on stage three of the Tour de Suisse today in Champagne, Switzerland. The duo stormed away from their breakaway companions on the final climb, 12km to the finish line, and worked to extend their gap in the closing kilometres. Neve took her first UCI race win and jumped into second place in the general classification. The young Australian rider moved into the lead in the youth classification while teammate Elise Chabbey extended her lead in the mountain classification. Niewiadoma won the Most Combative Rider award for the stage. CANYON//SRAM Racing will go into tomorrow’s final stage with three riders in the top ten overall, with Neve second, Kasia sixth, and Antonia Niedermaier ninth.

RIDER REACTIONS

Neve Bradbury: “It’s wild. It’s not just a victory, but it’s a team victory. We went into the stage wanting a hard stage. We tried to make the action, and the other teams work. We did exactly that and worked well together as a team. We’re so happy with the result. To finish 1-2 on a stage like that is just wild.

“The plan was to be on the offensive from the start and really put pressure on other teams. We knew we had a lot of cards to play today. There were attacks from the start, many from our team. Kasia attacked and just as she got caught I countered, still with 110km to go. I was with one other rider (Pirrone) and after around 10km, Kasia and two others joined us. Once we knew we would make it to the finish, the plan was to have Kasia set a strong pace up the climb, and for me to counter again but as she started the strong pace it was just the two of us so we just committed fully with each other. We were always thinking about the stage win but later we saw the opportunity that I could move up on GC.

I was surprised that we put more time into the peloton until we reached the final climb. I don’t know what happened in the peloton, but our group worked smoothly. Kasia went to the front on the final climb, and then when it was just us two, we went full gas to the end. The stage win was for me as we wanted the bonus seconds on the general classification. It’s a really nice feeling. It’s not just the win, it’s how we raced together and made it happen. We’re always committing 110% for each other and finally it paid off. For tomorrow’s stage, we’ll do our best. We want to keep racing like we did today and put pressure on the other teams.”

Kasia Niewiadoma: “We’re all very happy. It’s such a special and unique feeling to be in the final with a teammate and finish a race like this.

The stage was aggressive from the start, with many teams, including us, looking for opportunities to turn things around. We knew that our team was stronger than the first two stages showed. We went out there to have fun and race hard. There were many attacks and attempts to create a breakaway.

Neve got into an early breakaway with Pirrone. On the next climb, Lidl Trek set a hard pace, and when (Amanda) Spratt counterattacked, (Femke) De Vries and I followed. From that moment, we had five riders who were all committed even though it was a long breakaway attempt.

With less than 20km to go, we had the final 4km climb. I planned to set a hard pace and for Neve to attack over the top. When it was just us two left, it was clear we would go together as hard as possible to the finish line.

It was a nice experience to do a breakaway like this where you have two teammates and a sole focus to bring Neve as high up on GC as possible. It was demanding but equally rewarding. Only when we crossed the finish line could we release our emotions. To get the news of Neve moving up into second on GC and getting 1-2 on the stage was such a reward for the suffering.
Our goal was to make the team proud of us. Neve has been riding strongly and being a loyal teammate, so to be in the position to say thank you and for us to be able to show our team spirit feels great.

Flying from altitude into our recon camp and then TdS made me quite tired. My legs weren’t there in the first two stages, but I’m confident it will come around.

HOW TO WATCH

The final stage of the Tour de Suisse can be followed on X with #TDS2024. The live broadcast is on SRF 2, RTS 2, RSI 2, Eurosport, Discovery, and FloBikes.

Stage 4 | Tuesday, 18 June | CHAMPAGNE – CHAMPAGNE | 127.5km | Start: 13:30CEST | Broadcast: 15:00CEST.

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