Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) delivered one final display of dominance and authority to win stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse in the mountains, with it confirming his overall victory at this race for the first time.
The final survivor from the day’s early break, Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), was agonisingly caught with just 800m to go after taking on much of the final climb solo, but he did manage to hold on for second on the stage as a small consolation prize.
Starting the day with a lead of 4:22 after winning the opening stage and Saturday’s time trial, there was never much doubt that Pogačar was going to win the GC on Sunday, the only question was whether he would also win the stage and complete a hat-trick to go with his yellow jersey.
Racing with relative restraint – by his standards – the Slovenian didn’t attack until 9km to go on the fourth and final ascent of the Col de la Croix, but once he went, there was nothing anyone could do. He caught and passed all the breakaway riders who had been out front all day long and soloed to the stage victory in Villars-sur-Ollon.
“It was a super hard day,” Pogačar said at the finish. “The parcours was really tough, and with the team we did a super good job. It was getting harder and harder every lap that we did, and in the end it was an all-out effort.”
Martinez slumped over the line only a few seconds after Pogačar, whilst his breakaway companion Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) completed the day’s top three at a fairly distant 1:32.
None of Pogačar’s GC rivals could follow him when he attacked – EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz briefly tried but did not last long – and in fact many of the breakaway finished the stage ahead of the other GC riders.
That meant that there was no significant change to the top of the standings, bar Pogačar widening his gap. Carapaz secured second, a hefty 6:32 down after only five stages, whilst Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) completed the podium and won the best young rider’s jersey.
In winning the Tour de Suisse, Pogačar ticked off one of the major stage races he hadn’t yet one, and gave an ominous display of form two weeks out from the Tour de France, where he will be chasing a record-equalling fifth overall title.
How it unfolded
The final day in Switzerland rolled out of Villars-sur-Ollon for a daunting stage, featuring four laps around the Col de la Croix, doing the top of the climb, then the full 19km ascent, then finishing 14km up it for the finale.
The high temperatures made for an even tougher day, which saw five riders not start and dozens of riders drop out through the course of the stage.
Mercifully, the breakaway formed quite quickly after just 20km, made up of 11 riders: Afonso Eulálio, Lenny Martinez (both Bahrain Victorious), Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), AJ August (Netcompany Ineos), Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Paul Double, Mauro Schmid (both Jayco AlUla), Mattia Gaffuri (Picnic PostNL), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep), Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar). They quickly built a two-minute gap.
The first full ascent of the Col de la Croix saw more and more riders climb off as the leaders held their advantage, with Gaffuri the only one to briefly struggle on the climb but he soon rejoined the front. Behind, UAE Team Emirates-XRG were keeping things under control in the peloton for Pogačar.
Things remained steady for the next hour or so, with the leaders consolidating their lead at just over two minutes. The next time up the full Col de la Croix ascent, August and Giro d’Italia revelation Eulálio were the first to be dropped from the lead group, with Double also falling behind towards the top.
Behind, UAE were working through their domestiques, but then got some help from Decathlon CMA CGM. Martinez crested the climb first as the gap fell to 1:25, with just the descent and final climb left.
The break sped down the descent, which meant that they actually hit the final ascent with an increased gap at 1:51 with 11km to go, but the slopes to come meant that the gap could disappear very quickly.
With 10km to go, Lemmen attacked out of the break which began to split things up, with only Quintana and Martinez able to follow. It wasn’t long, however, until the predictable, inevitable Tadej Pogačar attack came, with the yellow jersey accelerating from the remains of the peloton with just under 9km to go. Richard Carapaz briefly followed, but could not hold on for long and soon Pogačar was solo in pursuit of the leaders.
The world champion had an impressive cooling strategy on the climb, with several UAE staff members by the side of the road handing off bottles purely for the purpose of pouring over his back as the temperatures soared.
Martinez pushed on ahead to go solo, but Pogačar was on a rampage as he picked off the breakaway remnants one by one. Despite the Frenchman’s best efforts, he was caught and passed by the yellow jersey within the final kilometre and ceded the stage victory to the dominant Slovenian.
Martinez held on for second, with Lemmen in third. Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM) finished well to take fifth on the stage, but it wasn’t enough to make any particular gains on GC and the podium remained unchanged from what it had been in the morning: Pogačar from Caparaz from Vacek.
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