Soraya Paladin finished 5th on today’s third stage at Tour de Suisse in Chur, Switzerland. The hilly stage saw a reduced peloton of 40 riders come to the finish line after 124km. The uphill sprint was won by Elisa Balsamo (TFS). Pauliena Rooijakkers crossed the line in 8th, maintaining her position on the general classification and retaining the mountain jersey.

“I felt good on the climbs today, especially the long climb I was feeling strong. That’s a good sign for tomorrow’s final stage,” said Pauliena.

“We had a plan to sprint for me in the final but I messed up starting too late. In hindsight, I should have gone earlier and if I didn’t make it then I set it up for Soraya. We have to look forward to tomorrow now. I’ll give everything for the GC and fight for all the seconds to give back to my team and my teammates for their work here.”

Soraya added, “It was quite a good race. We had 5 riders after the first long climb. Some of us were too far back on the descent and we had to chase to make it back to Pauliena’s group but we did and then from there we tried to manage the peloton and then help control the breakaway up the road. I was really impressed with Ella. She fought hard and then was in the front doing a lot of work today. After her injury, it is really nice to see her come back. In the final, Pauliena and I misunderstood each other. I felt strong and it’s a pity we couldn’t get on the podium. Now, we are fully focused on the final stage.”

Pauliena holds 4th place on the GC, at +34 seconds behind leader Kristen Faulkner (BEX).

HOW TO FOLLOW

The final 98km stage is from Chur to Lenz. The race start is 14:20CEST and the broadcast starts at 15:25CEST on SRF2, RTS2, RSILA1, GCN and Eurosport.

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