Zoe Bäckstedt overpowers the competition at Tour de Suisse stage 3

Zoe Bäckstedt won stage three of the Tour de Suisse on Friday. After an otherwise fairly uneventful stage, a sprint through the streets of Bad Ragaz settled things. The Brit from Canyon//SRAM zondercrypto was by far the strongest.

Elisa Longo Borghini won stage two on Thursday for UAE Team ADQ, but it was Urška Žigart's heavy crash that would linger longest in the memory. The AG Insurance-Soudal rider crashed over a solid kerb, breaking her jaw and suffering a concussion in the process. Her partner Tadej Pogacar was visibly shaken by it.

Friday's 120.8-kilometre stage to and from Bad Ragaz wasn't expected to bring too many difficulties, although the riders faced a steep wall right from the start. Dutchwoman Megan Arens decided to use that as her cue to attack immediately.

The Picnic-PostNL rider quickly opened up a half-minute gap and was later joined by a group of seven. Among them were riders such as Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), Juliette Berthet (FDJ-SUEZ) and Femke Markus (SD Worx-Protime). Also representing the Netherlands: Loes Adegeest of Lidl-Trek.

UAE Team ADQ, riding as a team, made sure the eight-rider breakaway's lead never grew much beyond two minutes. When that gap had come back down to 1:20 with 34 kilometres to go, Berthet attacked. The Frenchwoman's move ultimately came to nothing, as she was caught again after a few kilometres.

Race instigator Arens was the first to be dropped from the front group, and the rest of the escapees were swept up not long after. Everything pointed to a sprint, though Frenchwoman Laura Asencio tried to ride clear. With 10 kilometres to go, she too was caught. We were heading for a bunch sprint.

There was a crash first, with Lauren Dickson going down hard. The peloton doesn't wait, however, and the bunch steamed on towards the finish. There, it was Bäckstedt who went long from out front and immediately opened up a massive gap. Nobody saw the British rider again, and she took a thoroughly convincing win in Switzerland.

'The whole team did an excellent job today, and I really couldn't have done it without them. Credits to them,' said Bäckstedt afterwards in the flash interview. 'I was a bit nervous when that breakaway rode away and we had missed the move. Still, the pace was controlled well, and we were able to bring them back quickly. We still had enough time to prepare for the finish. Then I got a truly amazing lead out.'