'Definitely not the plan' - Pogacar explains astonishing Tour de Suisse raid

The world champion spent 69km alone at the head of the race to win by 2:14 from Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and 2:29 from Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), the only men to finish within four minutes.

There are still four stages of the revamped Tour de Suisse to go, but the final overall result looks in no doubt, as Pogačar continues his astonishing 2026 campaign. 

“Oh, it was hard. It was a really hard day,” Pogačar said afterwards. “The start was easy, everything was under control, but then with the first climb of the day, it was already super hard just to go up, but Nils [Politt] and Tim [Wellens] did amazing pace there.”

Pogačar has made a habit of long-distance raids like this one at the biggest races on the calendar, but he insisted that this effort hadn’t been planned in advance. After nabbing two bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Brandon McNulty kept the pace high as the road began to climb towards Triangia. When the opportunity presented itself, he simply pressed on.

“This was definitely not the plan, but somehow it worked. Thanks to the teammates, I think, because without them blocking in the back, setting the pace before, this wouldn’t be possible,” said Pogačar.

“We went for the bonus seconds and then me and Brandon looked at each other and we said, ‘Let’s go.’ We tried something and from then on, we just went. I didn’t have radio at that time so I didn't know what's going on in the back, so I just kept riding hard and then once I knew the gap is quite big I could settle into the rhythm and try to hold it to the finish. 

“It was super long and really hard, but also at the same time it was quite technical, so it was really nice to be alone.”

Pogačar is alone at the head of the overall standings, some 2:22 up on Carapaz, and out on his own atop the list of favourites for next month’s Tour de France. Wednesday’s opener was Pogačar’s first race since winning the Tour de Romandie in May, and it confirmed that his work at his May training camp had been fruitful. It remains to be seen if he will keep running the score up across the remainder of the week.

“Stay safe and keep the jersey,” Pogačar said when asked his strategy for stage 2. “We have a strong team, we can try to go for the stage with Johnny [Narvaez], Brandon or Felix [Grossschartner] – or anybody else in the team. And we’ll see how the guys feel. After today we’ll talk and we’ll see what we do tomorrow.”