A Statement in the Time Trial: Pogacar has stampeded to a commanding overall lead and now stands on the brink of his first Tour de Suisse victory. On stage four, the UAE Emirates-XRG world champion blitzed the 23.7km Aarburg course in 26:37.99, edging Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) by a mere 31 hundredths of a second.
Norway’s former TT world champion Tobias Foss took third for Netcompany Ineos, six seconds adrift, while Pogacar’s domestique Nils Politt led the German challenge in 14th place, 43 seconds down.
Particularly spectacular: Pogacar passed challenger Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who had started earlier, extending his GC advantage to 4:22 over the second placed Tokyo Olympic champion – nearly doubling his previous margin.
The Slovenian superstar is using the Tour de Suisse as his final Tour de France tune-up, with the Grand Départ in Barcelona on July 4. There, a fifth overall win would see him join the all-time greats.
But first, Sunday’s 150.7km finale awaits, featuring three ascents of the Col de la Croix – a route tailor-made for Pogacar’s climbing prowess.
