Worried about his girlfriend Urska Zigart, who had suffered a serious fall, cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar narrowly missed out on another stage victory at the Tour de Suisse. After a chase in the final stages of the second stage, covering 157.7 kilometres around Locarno, the Slovenian world champion was just four seconds behind a six-man breakaway group, from which Frenchman Romain Gregoire claimed the stage victory.
In his thoughts, however, Pogacar was with his partner, who had suffered a serious fall on a bump one kilometre from the finish line during the Women’s Tour de Suisse – which was taking place at the same time – and had broken her jaw. Her team announced this following an examination at hospital. Immediately after the stage, Pogacar was seen talking on a mobile phone.
Pogacar is well ahead in the general classification
In the overall standings, however, the exceptional Slovenian rider – who is aiming for his fifth Tour de France victory in a few weeks’ time – still holds a comfortable lead following his solo victory on the opening stage. Tokyo Olympic champion Richard Carapaz, in second place, is already 2 minutes 50 seconds behind.
On the second stage, Pogacar had let the breakaway riders get away for a long time before he really turned up the pace on the two third-category climbs in the final stages and, almost single-handedly, closed the gap of over two minutes.
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