De Vries Holds Off Dickson In A Two-Up Sprint To Win Tour de Suisse Women Stage 1 And Claim Her First Pro Victory
Femke de Vries announced herself in the biggest possible way on the opening day of the 2026 Tour de Suisse Women, beating Lauren Dickson in a two-up sprint to win stage 1 in Sondrio. For the Visma-Lease a Bike rider it was a first professional victory of any kind, and it came with the leader's jersey attached.
The decisive split came early. A 12-rider breakaway tore clear of what remained of the peloton with 42km to go on the tough 109.3km stage, and the race was eventually whittled down to two when De Vries and Dickson found themselves alone with around 17km remaining. The pair committed fully, working together to open a significant advantage over the chasers and ensuring the win would be settled between them.
The selection was forged on the climbs. Urska Zigart launched off the front on the penultimate ascent of Triangia before being reeled in by De Vries and then Dickson; when De Vries pressed hard on the following descent, the other attackers could not hold the wheel. Dickson clawed her way back across to set up the head-to-head finale, and on the line it was the Dutchwoman who timed it best, sitting patiently before coming around her FDJ United-Suez rival to take the win.
"It's my first win in a UCI race so it's super special, I'm incredibly happy, I don't believe it still," De Vries said afterwards. "I pushed Lauren onto the front at the beginning and she started the sprint and I was really patient. I'm really proud of myself how I did that. It's my first WorldTour win, my first win, so incredible." The 23-year-old admitted she had even felt cramp on the final climb but simply committed to going all out as the gap behind began to shrink.
Behind the two leaders, Cedrine Kerbaol attacked the group of favourites to take third at 29 seconds, capitalising on a stage that the GC contenders allowed to slip away. The ostensible favourites — Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Elisa Longo Borghini and defending champion Marlen Reusser — finished together and now trail De Vries by 48 seconds, a meaningful deficit so early in a tightly contested race.
De Vries leads the general classification by four seconds from Dickson, with Kerbaol a further half-minute back. With the men's and women's races now aligned over the same five days and locations under the event's new combined format, the Visma rider has the chance to defend the overall lead on roads she already knows and loves, having taken a third place here on her WorldTour debut two seasons ago.