{"id":123138,"date":"2026-06-17T11:14:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/sarah-van-dam-5th-in-challenging-tour-de-suisse-opener\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:14:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:14:58","slug":"sarah-van-dam-5th-in-challenging-tour-de-suisse-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/sarah-van-dam-5th-in-challenging-tour-de-suisse-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Van Dam 5th in challenging Tour de Suisse opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Another big result for Sarah Van Dam as she continues to get soooo close to her first pro win.<\/p>\n<p>The Victoria native opened her Tour de Suisse campaign with a strong fifth-place finish on Wednesday. Her teammate, Femke de Vries, claimed her first professional victory after a brilliant long-range attack.<\/p>\n<h2>Tough Stage 1<\/h2>\n<p>The opening 108-km stage around Sondrio featured three tough climbs. The leg-breaker of a hill, the Bordighi, was just four km from the finish, and it definitely shattered the field.<\/p>\n<p>The race had already come to life after the first major climb. A select lead group formed, and eventually De Vries, Lauren Dickson and Ur\u0161ka \u017digart broke clear on the Triangia climb. De Vries launched another attack to leave \u017digart behind, setting up a two-rider move at the front.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"EJVEQFX0Yx\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/feature\/strong-canadian-lineup-for-tour-de-suisse-women\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to watch the Canadians at the Tour de Suisse Women<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cHow to watch the Canadians at the Tour de Suisse Women\u201d \u2014 Canadian Cycling Magazine\" src=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/feature\/strong-canadian-lineup-for-tour-de-suisse-women\/embed\/#?secret=PGwvgwIyfI#?secret=EJVEQFX0Yx\" data-secret=\"EJVEQFX0Yx\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Working smoothly together, the duo stretched their advantage beyond a minute while the chasing groups merged behind them. Although the favourites ramped up the pace on the final climb, the escapees had done enough to stay clear. (One favourite, btw who isn\u2019t racing is FDJ United-SUEZ\u2019s Demi Vollering, who opted out of the race just days earlier.)<\/p>\n<h2>The final kick by De Vries to seal the win<\/h2>\n<p>Dickson launched the sprint in the closing metres, but De Vries came around the FDJ United-SUEZ rider with a final acceleration to seal both the stage win and the first leader\u2019s jersey of the race.<br \/>Behind them, C\u00e9drine Kerbaol rode clear to finish third, while the main group of favourites crossed the line 38 seconds after the winner.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dam was among that select group, sprinting home to take fifth place on the stage. It marked an encouraging start for the Canadian, who finished alongside several of the race\u2019s top overall contenders after safely negotiating the demanding opening day.<\/p>\n<h2>Next up for the Tour de Suisse Women<\/h2>\n<p>Van Dam also sits fifth overall. The other Canuck, Nadia Gontova (Liv AlUla Jayco), finished 37th overall. World champion Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res-Mill was expected to start but was a last-minute scratch.<br \/>Stage 2 of the five-day race is in Locarno. The men are also racing today\u2014they too are doing five stages, and both races are being run concurrently. There is one Canadian in the men\u2019s field, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/tour-de-suisse-preview-tadej-pogacar-headlines-compact-5-day-showdown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NSN Cycling\u2019s Pier-Andr\u00e9 C\u00f4t\u00e9.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 1 --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t! function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n\t\t\tif (f.fbq) return;\n\t\t\tn = f.fbq = function() {\n\t\t\t\tn.callMethod ?\n\t\t\t\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n\t\t\t};\n\t\t\tif (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n\t\t\tn.push = n;\n\t\t\tn.loaded = !0;\n\t\t\tn.version = '2.0';\n\t\t\tn.queue = [];\n\t\t\tt = b.createElement(e);\n\t\t\tt.async = !0;\n\t\t\tt.src = v;\n\t\t\ts = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n\t\t}(window, document, 'script',\n\t\t\t'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '900220307025564');\n\t\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/feature\/sarah-van-dam-5th-in-challenging-tour-de-suisse-opener\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another big result for Sarah Van Dam as she continues to get soooo close to her first pro win. The Victoria native opened her Tour de Suisse campaign with a strong fifth-place finish on Wednesday. Her teammate, Femke de Vries, claimed her first professional victory after a brilliant long-range attack. Tough Stage 1 The opening [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}