A broken jaw, abrasions and suspected concussion: Urska Zigart had to be hospitalised after a heavy crash in the finale of the second stage of the Tour de Suisse Femmes, with the fiancée of Tadej Pogacar initially kept in for observation. The 29-year-old crashed over a speed bump one kilometre from the finish in Locarno at high speed and struck her head hard on the asphalt.
World champion Pogacar, meanwhile, contested the men’s race of the same stage – visibly preoccupied. The Slovenian refrained from aggressive attacks of the kind he had shown a day earlier with his spectacular 70km solo to win the opening stage, and rolled across the finish line in Locarno in eighth place – four seconds behind stage winner Romain Grégoire of France.
In the general classification, Pogacar retains his lead with a comfortable margin of 2:50 minutes over Tokyo Olympic champion Richard Carapaz of Ecuador. The 27-year-old is using the Tour de Suisse as a targeted final dress rehearsal for the Tour de France, which starts in Barcelona on 4 July – a fifth overall victory at the Grande Boucle would place him among the record winners. On Friday, Switzerland hosts the third of five stages: 157.4 km around Bad Ragaz with two mountain classifications of the second-highest category.
