Tour de Suisse Men stage 1 LIVE: Tadej Pogačar goes solo with most of the stage still remaining

Pogačar also takes the combativity prize for the day, which is understandable but maybe would’ve been nice to give it to Dversnes or Carapaz instead.

Pogačar takes the intermediate sprint, no bonus seconds at this one. He now heads to the final climb of the Bordighi which is 1.2km long with an average gradient of 12% and max of 16%.

Pogačar now descending to the valley floor where he goes to one final climb with a gap of 2’27” over Carapaz, 3’06” over Bagioli and 4’47” on the first group on the road.

Pogačar has started the penultimate climb of the day, the Ponte in Valtellina which is 1.6km with an average of 8.9% and a max of 10.6%.

To quote a bit of viral commentary from Rob Hatch… All alone in front of the crowds. Tadej Pogačar has lost 20″ to Carapaz, though.

Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon-CMA CGM) is leading the first group on the road for Riccitello. Benoot is returning to racing for the first time since Il Lombardia last year. He is making his racing debut for Decathlon.

Mikel Landa and his Soudal-QuickStep teammate Ilan Van Wilder are now both in the main chase group who are 3’31” back on Pogačar.

The likelihood that Pogačar will ride like this for the rest of the race is very high. He could possibly win this by a gigantic margin.

Carapaz has a minute on the rest of the chasers. He is riding very strongly but, sadly for him, he has Pogačar two minutes ahead of him.

The riders are now heading to the highest point of the day, funnily enough it is uncategorised.

It is almost a gap of two minutes now for the world champion. The race will be done before it has really got going.

Pogačar has 1’34” on Carapaz and 2’31” on the first group of riders.

Carapaz has taken a good gap on the chasers and looks good in second at the moment. The gaps to Pogačar are 1’23” to Carapaz, 1’50” to the chase group and 3’12” to the group that includes Van der Poel.

The first chase group has grown to 18 riders with multiple from UAE Team Emirates-XRG. They have a superb team here.

Pogačar now has 1’15” on the chasing group that has grown to about 15 riders.

Jhonatan Narvaez (UAD) has joined the chase group now as well with multiple other riders joining the first chase group.

Pogačar just eased away from the chasers and now has a minute on Roglic, McNulty, Riccitello, Carapaz, Vacek, Double and Bagioli.

In the peloton, Pogačar takes the first sprint to take second in that and the two bonus seconds. And he adds the next as well, so he takes the four bonus seconds with Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon-CMA CGM) trying to challenge him.

Dvernes does indeed take both Tissot KM sprints and the six bonus seconds that go with it.

The peloton has been significantly reduced over the top of the climb and out of the technical descent. They are now just 1’13” away from Dversnes.

With just Dversnes out front it means that there are a max of four bonus seconds available in the Tissot KM for the peloton that is rapidly approaching. Dversnes will take six bonus seconds.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG had all their riders at the front of the peloton over the top of the climb with Beullens being caught before the top of the climb.

Dversnes leads over the Buglio in Monte ahead of Beullens by about 1’15” with the peloton at 2’10”.

Multiple riders being dropped in the peloton on the steep gradients.

On the climb, Dversnes has dropped Beullens on some of the steepest gradients.

Beullens and Dvernes lead onto the Buglio in Monte which is a 3km long climb that has an average gradient of 10.1% and a maximum gradient of 20.9%. This really sets the tone for the rest of the day.

The gap is dropping to the leaders with 2’20” splitting the peloton and the duo out front. They are now just 5km from the bottom of the climb.

After one hour of racing the average speed is up at 46kph. A rapid start to the day with just 10km to the base of the first climb, the brutally steep Buglio in Monte that really shaped the women’s race this morning. That said, it did come much closer to the finish for them.

The race has really settled down with Beullens and Dvernes holding their 3’30” gap on the peloton that are settling into who does the work.

The gap to the two leaders settles down and drops slightly to 3’30” between them and the peloton.

Dversnes is always a dangerous man to allow into a breakaway but I don’t think today he will be replicating his amazing win in Milan at the Giro where he and his breakaway companions pulled off a masterful ride to take the stage win.

The gap yawns out to 2’00” for the leaders. Cote probably wishing he had stayed with the break now as he sits in the peloton.

Dvernes and Beullens now have 45″ on the peloton.

Cote sits up leaving Beullens and Dvernes out front with a small gap on the peloton.

We have already had an abandon with Alessandro Pinarello (NSN) having to leave the race. He struggled through the Giro and had come here only to immediately leave the race. A shame for the Italian.

Hello and welcome to live updates of the opening stage of the men’s Tour de Suisse 2026. The women’s race took place earlier today with a fantastic stage on Italian roads and now the men take on roughly the same route, albeit about 40km longer.