The 2025 Tour de Suisse continued Tuesday with stage 3 – a 195.6-kilometer ride from Aarau to Heiden. The stage will feature rolling hills terrain and include a Category 2 and a Category 3 climb in the stage finale.

This year’s line-up for Tour de Suisse included race favorites such as Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Lidl-Trek), Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), and Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s Marc Hirschi and Julian Alaphilippe.

Stage 3 of the 2025 Tour de Suisse got off to a fast start and multiple breakaway attempts were launched from the peloton in the first part of the stage. After several attacks and reshuffles, a strong attacking group was formed that featured Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R), Samuele Battistella (EF Education-EasyPost), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Brent van Moer (Lotto Team), and newly crowned American national champion Quinn Simmons of Team Lidl-Trek.

The six-man breakaway group had established a lead of 02:20 minutes after fifty kilometers of fast racing on the roads of Switzerland.

While powering along the Swiss roads in sunny conditions and with temperatures around 25 degrees Celsius, the front sextet had been able to maintain a lead of 01:30 minutes with 110 kilometers remaining.

Tudor Pro Cycling Team was joining forces with Groupama-FDJ in the main peloton to control the advantage of the breakaway, but their lead had increased to two minutes after 110 kilometers of the stage.

Yesterday’s second place finisher Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) crashed with Junior Lecerf (Soudal-QuickStep) and while Lecerf got back on his bike, it appeared Christen was suffering more. Bad luck for the Swiss rider who had even prepared especially for this year’s Tour de Suisse and done recon rides for all stages before the race start.

The speed was high, both in the front sextet group and in the main peloton, and riders got dropped from the main peloton on the hilly roads of the Swiss Alps.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) crashed while navigating a sharp corner with 58 kilometers left of the stage. The Welshman was using the Tour of Suisse as a warm-up race for the Tour de France but had now injured his left knee. Thomas got back on his bike, but his final Tour de France participation was now in jeopardy. 

Geraint Thomas is rumored to end his professional cyclist career after this year’s Tour of Britain and then continue his career in a management role with Team Ineos-Grenadiers. Three teammates loyally fell back to Thomas to help him return to the peloton and continue Tour de Suisse.

Max Walker and Nans Peters proved unable to keep up with their fellow breakaway companions on the uncategorized climbs of the stage and had been caught by the chasing peloton when 32 kilometers remained. The GC teams were setting a fast pace in support of their respective captains before the race would reach the two categorized climbs of the stage.

The riders started climbing the Knolhusen, which was a Category 2 climb. The advantage of the front quartet quickly got reduced to twenty seconds. Geraint Thomas was still chasing behind the main peloton with Ineos-Grenadiers teammates at this point, more than a minute behind the front quartet.

Quinn Simmons launched a solo attack on Knolhusen and formed a gap. Eighteen kilometers of stage 3 were yet to be conquered.

The three chasers from the original breakaway group got reeled in by the chasing peloton shortly thereafter, despite a determined effort from Samuele Battistella. The riders in the front part of the peloton sprinted towards the summit to obtain as good positions as possible for the fast and risky descent that would follow. Quinn Simmons was now the sole man in front.

Simmons reached Büriswilen, which was a Category 3 climb and the final categorized climb on the day’s racing menu.

Juan Pedro Lopez attacked from the main peloton on the climb but got caught shortly later. Meanwhile, Simmons was continuing as chase rabbit with a 28-second lead over the main peloton, where the speed was intense and the GC riders were testing each other.

USA national champion Quinn Simmons continued his solo attacking effort and had a lead of half a minute over the chasing riders in the main peloton when eight kilometers remained.

Neilson Powless attacked solo from the main peloton shortly later and the American rider from Team EF Education-EasyPost initiated a battle to make the leap to fellow countryman Simmons. 

Quinn Simmons was thirty seconds ahead of Powless when 2.5 kilometers remained. The main peloton was 46 seconds behind Simmons.

Powless got reeled in by the chasing peloton 1.9 kilometers from the finish line in Heiden.

Quinn Simmons crossed the finish line as winner of stage 3 of the 2025 Tour de Suisse. What a brave, courageous and impressive result by the strong American rider after a long and exhausting breakaway effort on the roads of Switzerland. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) won the sprint from a reduced main peloton to take second place, while Oscar Onley completed the stage podium for Picnic-PostNL. Romain Gregoire finished fourth, while Kevin Vauquelin was fifth. Pello Bilbao finished eighth, while Felix Gall was ninth.

“I was downing a bit in the end, but my motivation was super high. I really wanted to win yesterday in honor of Gino Mader (who passed away on June 16, 2023, while racing Tour de Suisse). I met his mother yesterday and for sure it gave me extra motivation today. I flew the eagle while crossing the finish line to show my gratefulness for taking my first win in the national champion jersey,” stage winner Simmons explained to Roadcycling.com before being celebrated on the podium.

Romain Gregoire remains general classification leader for Groupama-FDJ. Kevin Vauquelin is second for Arkea B & B Hotels, while Bart Lemmen is third for Team Visma-Lease a Bike. Julian Alaphilippe is fourth, while Ben O’Connor is fifth in the GC.

Wednesday’s stage 4 of Tour de Suisse 2025 will be a 193.2-kilometer ride from Heiden to Piuro-Valchiavenna. The stage will feature the Splüngenpass on the border between Switzerland and Italy and the major general classification favorites are expected to use the Category 1 climb to launch attacks before the long descent, which will take the riders close to the stage finish, before the riders will face uphill terrain again in the stage finale, though with limited incline percentages.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de Suisse.