Cycling star Tadej Pogacar has convincingly won the Tour de Suisse with yet another display of dominance on the queen stage, thereby passing a successful test of his fitness two weeks before the start of the Tour de France. The Slovenian world champion claimed his third stage victory on the fifth and final stage.
After 150.7 kilometres, with the start and finish in Villars-sur-Ollon, Pogacar claimed victory in the mountain stage in a solo breakaway, ahead of France’s Lenny Martinez and the Netherlands’ Bart Lemmen. The 27-year-old thus finished the tour with a 6:32-minute lead over Tokyo Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (Ecuador) in the general classification.
Martinez, the breakaway rider, is 900 metres behind
Before the final climb, Pogacar was still more than two minutes behind a breakaway group, before the Slovenian stepped up the pace. With 900 metres to go, Pogacar finally caught up with the leader, Martinez.
Pogacar, who has only competed in 16 race days so far this year, has already racked up 13 wins this season. If he were to secure a fifth overall victory in the Tour, he would join the record-holders Eddy Merckx (Belgium), Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault (both France) and Miguel Indurain (Spain).
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