Pogacar denies spirited Van der Poel in Tour de Suisse time trial thriller

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) scorched to victory in the stage 4 time trial of the Tour de Suisse, pipping a spirited Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) to the win in Aarburg by just 0.31 seconds.

The stage offered Pogačar his second outing on his new TT2 time trial bike ahead of the Tour de France, and he will be pleased with his outing, even if Van der Poel pushed him closer than anyone could have anticipated.

Pogačar already held a commanding lead in the overall standings before the 23.8km test, and he put the yellow jersey even further beyond the reach of his rivals by catching and passing Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) shortly after the midpoint.

By then, the only suspense surrounded the stage victory, with Pogačar just 0.7 seconds clear of Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) at the time check after 10.3km. The Slovenian proved the stronger over the back end of the course, however, and he did enough to stop the clock 0.31 seconds quicker than Van der Poel and 7 seconds up on Tobias Foss (Netcompany-Ineos).

Vacek would have to settle for fourth at 10 seconds after fading a touch in the closing kilometres.

Van der Poel offered up his first glimmer of form on this Tour de Suisse with a fine second place on the stage. He flung himself into every corner on the course and his effort saw him bump Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) out of the hot seat.

The Dutchman was only five seconds slower than Pogačar and Vacek at the intermediate check, and his mastery of the technical finale gave him more than a fighting chance of securing stage victory.

Pogačar, however, did just enough on the technical run-in to deny Van der Poel, who could only laugh in resignation as he watched events unfold from the hot seat.

It was striking, too, that Pogačar had three UAE teammates for company in the top ten, with Wellens taking fifth at 12 seconds, Felix Grossschartner sixth at 27 seconds and Brandon McNulty ninth at 31 seconds.

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was a surprisingly subdued 12th, some 37 seconds behind his compatriot, while the Bahrain Victorious duo of Alec Segaert and Antonio Tiberi would have hoped for better than 15th and 16th here.

In the overall standings, Carapaz remains second overall, but he is now 4:22 behind Pogačar, while Vacek has moved up to third at 4:27, just ahead of his Lidl-Trek teammate Andrea Bagioli.

The battle for the places behind Pogačar will be keenly fought on Sunday’s grande finale around Villars-sur-Ollon, but the stage itself might prove to be a very public mountain work-out for the world champion ahead of the Tour de France.

The Tour de Suisse title is already secure, but his work here isn’t done just yet.