Tadej Pogacar scorches to victory and race lead on Tour de Romandie stage 1

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) won stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie, outsprinting Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) in Martigny following a breathless finale over the climb of Ovronnaz. The victory puts Pogačar into the yellow jersey of race leader.

As was widely anticipated beforehand, the race was ignited by Pogačar on the day’s main obstacle. When the world champion sprang into action 4km from the summit of Ovronnaz, it initially looked as though he would simply bludgeon his way clear with 38km still to race.

Martinez, however, put up fierce resistance, holding Pogačar’s wheel all the way to the top, while Lipowitz also bridged across and then just about managed to hang on over the summit. A determined Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike) gave chase on the descent, meanwhile, and he caught the Pogačar group with 22km remaining.

With Primož Roglič (Red Bull) in the chasing group, Lipowitz opted against contributing at all to the pace-making in the break, but Pogačar found altogether more willing allies in Martinez and Nordhagen. 

The leading quartet would reach Martigny with almost half a minute in hand on the 13-strong chasing group, but within the final 2km, the burden of pace-making fell almost entirely upon Pogačar’s shoulders.

The chasers drew closer as a result, but Pogačar did just enough to ensure the break stayed clear to dispute the sprint. Nordhagen tried to take a flyer from distance, but he succeeded only in leading out the sprint, and Pogačar’s power brooked no argument.

In the overall standings, Pogačar has a lead of seven seconds on Lipowitz, with Martinez third at 16 seconds.

The stage around Martigny began with three laps of a circuit over the climb of La Rasse, and the early exchanges saw a break of seven riders forge clear. Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step), Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek), Mattio Pietro (Visma | Lease a Bike), Patrick Gamper (Jayco AlUla), Roland Thalmann (Tudor), Dillon Corkery and Alexy Faure Prost (Picnic PostNL) struck up a decent working alliance, opening a maximum lead of four minutes before Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad organised the chase.

The pace in the peloton ratcheted up on the approach to the climb of Ovronnaz, and the break’s lead shrank accordingly. Meanwhile, Oscar Onley (Ineos) abandoned the race due to illness, marking another setback for the Scot on his road towards the Tour de France.

The break quickly fragmented on the lower slopes of the climb to Ovronnaz, while yellow jersey Dorian Godon (Ineos) and Daniel Martínez (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were among those distanced as the gradient bit.

After a stint of pace-making from Pavel Sivakov, Pogačar went on the offensive with 38km remaining, just over 4km from the top of the climb. Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the first rider to follow, but he was soon forced to relent, with only an impressive Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) able to stay with Pogačar’s pace.

Shortly afterwards, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull) managed to bridge up to Pogačar and Martinez, while Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) briefly succeeded in following before he had to drop back.

Pogačar was content to keep setting the tempo, and although he briefly distanced Lipowitz again near the top, he never unleashed an acceleration of real venom. He was happy to allow Martinez to take the mountains points at the top with 34km to go, and the three leaders crested the summit with a lead of 10 seconds over Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike).

Seemingly citing Roglič's presence in the third group on the road, Lipowitz was content to sit on, leaving Pogačar to lead all the way down the descent. Nordhagen gave dogged chase, and the Norwegian joined the front group when the road flattened out with 21km to go, by which point the Roglič group was chasing at 40 seconds.