Results Tour de Suisse 2026 Stage 3 - Jhonatan Narvaez beats Xandro Meurisse in storm-lashed finale as sprint chase comes too late

Jhonatan Narvaez won stage 3 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse after surviving torrential rain, a late peloton chase and a two-up sprint against Xandro Meurisse in Bad Ragaz.

The UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider came through a brutal, storm-hit day to beat Meurisse after the pair held off the bunch in the final kilometres. Magnus Cort won the sprint for third behind them, with Marijn van den Berg fourth and Mathieu van der Poel fifth.

What had been marked out as the clearest sprint opportunity of the men’s race became something far messier.

The early climbing damaged the sprint field before the weather turned the run-in into a soaked, dangerous pursuit, with lightning, standing water and heavy rain making the final chase feel as much like survival as sprint preparation.

The stage had always carried a warning. The final 60 kilometres were almost flat, but the opening half of the 157.4km route included enough climbing to hurt the fast men before they reached the road back towards Bad Ragaz.

That damage came quickly. Kaden Groves, one of the strongest sprint options for the stage, was among the riders distanced early before later abandoning. Casper van Uden, another fast finisher with stage 3 circled as his clearest opportunity in Switzerland, also stepped off the race. Cedric Beullens abandoned after being dropped almost immediately on the opening climbs following a mechanical problem.

The attacks began with Bauke Mollema before a seven-rider break formed with Sander De Pestel, Louis Vervaeke, Lorenzo Germani, Axel Laurence, Sam Oomen, Simon Dalby and Marco Brenner. Their lead reached 1:40 by the foot of the Wildhaus, a 9km climb averaging around 7%.

That climb reshaped the front of the race. Aleksandr Vlasov and Finn Fisher-Black tried to bridge, while Narvaez, Enric Mas, Jan Hirt, Louis Barre and Paul Double were also active as the groups formed and reformed. Vervaeke took maximum mountain points at the top of the Wildhaus ahead of Double, but the stage was still nowhere near settled.

The peloton briefly split soon afterwards, with around 30 riders moving clear and yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar present near the front. That move opened a gap before the race came back together and the next wave of attacks began.

Narvaez, Meurisse and Michal Kwiatkowski were among the next riders to go, before Narvaez and Meurisse emerged as the strongest pair. Behind them, Emiel Verstrynge, Antonio Tiberi, Ewen Costiou, Kwiatkowski, Vlasov, Maximilian Schachmann, Dalby and Brenner formed the main chase, but the two leaders extended their advantage on the Schwagalp Passhohe.

Meurisse took the mountain points at the summit ahead of Narvaez, while the pair opened more than two minutes on the chasers. Narvaez looked the stronger rider on the descent, briefly putting Meurisse under pressure before the Belgian fought back onto the wheel.

The chase group behind came close enough to threaten the front pair, cutting the gap to around 30 seconds, but it was eventually brought back by the peloton. That left Narvaez and Meurisse alone in front as the stage moved into its rain-soaked final phase.

The weather then became one of the defining features of the day. Heavy rain, wind, lightning and dark skies turned the roads towards Bad Ragaz into a dangerous pursuit, with UAE moving forward around Pogacar to keep the yellow jersey protected on the soaked roads.

Meurisse also survived a scare when his chain slipped just as he tried to accelerate, forcing him to fight to stay upright before continuing alongside Narvaez.

For a long time, the peloton’s chase looked short of urgency. Narvaez and Meurisse still had more than three minutes with 40 kilometres remaining, even as Team Visma | Lease a Bike, EF Education - EasyPost and Lidl - Trek began adding riders to the work behind. Team Jayco AlUla then placed another rider into the chase, but the gap initially came down too slowly to make the catch look inevitable.

The speed finally lifted inside the final 30 kilometres. The two leaders continued to work together, although Narvaez was doing the majority of the work on the front. The Ecuadorian also carried a fast finish if the pair survived, leaving Meurisse needing more than a straight sprint to beat him.

Behind, the peloton cut the gap to 1:20 and then close to one minute inside the final 10 kilometres. But UAE had a clear card to play. With Narvaez up the road, the team moved forward in the bunch not to chase, but to disrupt the rhythm and take speed out of the pursuit.

Tim Wellens was prominent near the front, slowing the momentum behind his teammate as the sprint teams tried to keep the catch alive. The gap dropped to 50 seconds, but Narvaez and Meurisse kept working long enough to make the catch impossible.

The pair sprinted for victory at the front, with Narvaez coming out on top to give UAE another win in a race already controlled overall by Pogacar. Meurisse had to settle for second, while Cort led the peloton home for third after the sprint teams ran out of road.