Finally someone had an answer for Pogačar at Tour de Suisse: 'It doesn’t work out every day'

When Tadej Pogacar accelerates, almost nobody can follow. We saw that in stage one, where he put minutes into his rivals. But in stage two, there was finally someone who had an answer — and perhaps not the expected name. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) proved himself a lion tamer at the Tour de Suisse.

Pogacar first took on the role of domestique: UAE Team Emirates-XRG wanted to back Jhonatan Narváez. The gap to the leaders wouldn't close, however, and the Slovenian was riding too hard for his teammate. So he had to race for himself. He drove hard up the climbs, but Vacek was the only rider able to stay with him on the short, steep ascents in the finale.

They just fell short of catching the breakaway: Vacek finished sixth at four seconds, with Pogacar right behind him. "I felt good from the start, so I knew I'd be able to perform well today," he said in the flash interview. "The course suited me, even a little more than yesterday. The team believed in me. UAE set the pace to try to catch the break, but we got very close — two seconds, I think."

On Tuesday the young Czech had already shown excellent climbing legs, but wearing the white jersey he showed himself at his very best here. "I'm happy that I was able to follow Tadej in the end. It's not every day you manage it," the tall, powerful Czech laughs. "It's nice to get to the front and work together — that was pretty special."

A stage win would have been the icing on the cake for the Lidl-Trek rider. "Unfortunately the breakaway was very strong. We had Bauke [Mollema] up there, but he had to let go early. I had to do my best to get the best possible result for my team. We just fell short, and they held on. It was certainly a fast stage, and difficult to catch the break with only UAE doing the work. But a good day nonetheless."