Tadej Pogačar has completely dominated the Tour de Suisse and heads to the Tour de France as the clear favourite, with the race starting on 4 June in Barcelona.
The 27-year-old world champion from Slovenia not only won the concluding queen stage, featuring a triple ascent of the 1,722 m-high Col de la Croix, but also secured the overall classification – with a commanding lead of 6:32 minutes over Tokyo Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (Ecuador/EF Education-EasyPost). Such a large overall margin at the traditional Tour de France dress rehearsal had last been achieved by Cologne’s Hennes Junkermann 67 years ago.
On the final stage, Pogačar, captain of UAE Team Emirates-XRG, bided his time in the peloton for a long time – only on the final climb did he kick into high gear, reel in the remaining breakaway riders, and cross the line with a seven-second advantage over Frenchman Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious). It was already his third stage victory at this edition of the Tour de Suisse across a total of five race days: he had previously won the individual time trial over 23.7 km as well as the opening stage after an impressive 70 km solo with more than two minutes to spare.
Of his 18 results this season – stage wins and overall classifications combined – Pogačar has turned 13 into victories. The four-time Tour de France winner was simply in a league of his own at the highly competitive Swiss stage race.
