Romain Grégoire strongest from the break in Switzerland, 'domestique' Pogačar falls short by a few seconds

Romain Grégoire won the second stage of the Tour de Suisse. The Frenchman from Groupama-FDJ was part of an early breakaway that made it to the finish, where he beat Marcel Camprubí (Pinarello - Q36.5) and Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike) in the sprint. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) came very close but fell just a few tenths of a second short.

Tadej Pogacar had taken a month off, but made a spectacular comeback in the Tour de Suisse. With a solo breakaway of more than seventy kilometers, he showed who was boss. But would he start the second stage? His fiancée, Urska Zigart, had suffered a hard crash in the women's Tour de Suisse, but the world champion took the start anyway after the women’s race had finished.

And right from the start, there was some tough climbing around Lugano. This led to a strong breakaway forming. Fourteen riders made up the breakaway, including Bart Lemmen (Visma | Lease a Bike), Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), Milan Vader (Pinarello - Q36.5), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Emiel Verstrynge (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), Filippo Zana (Soudal Quick-Step), and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor).

Finlay Pickering was the biggest threat in the general classification: the British rider from Jayco AlUla was in 15th place, 4.44 minutes behind yellow jersey wearer Pogacar. UAE Team Emirates-XRG therefore took the lead. The question was whether the leader actually wanted to win: on Wednesday, he had said he wanted to let his teammates take the victory. But with Pogi , you never know ...

Despite the efforts of the Emirates team, the gap didn’t really close very quickly. With thirty kilometers to go, the gap was still well over 2.30 minutes. Was there still a chance the breakaway riders would make it? The final stretch would be tough, with the favorites closing in fast. But the breakaway riders weren’t just any riders, either.

They started with 15 kilometers to go on the penultimate climb. At that point, UAE Team Emirates-XRG had had enough: they weren’t going to ride for the stage win. It was up to the other teams to do the work. They set a grueling pace, which meant that Mathieu van der Poel had to drop back immediately on the climbs. How could that be? Well, UAE Team Emirates-XRG had moved back to the front.

And so the lead melted away like snow in the sun, but it was Eulálio who accelerated hard at the front: he took Lemmen, Zana, Pickering, and Verstrynge with him. But Pogacar had taken the lead behind them. He wasn’t riding for himself: it was for his teammate Jhonatan Narváez. The yellow jersey wearer kept pushing hard, but could he close the gap on the leaders?

The Slovenian superstar chipped away at the gap at the base of the final climb. Lemmen picked up the pace on the final climb, but behind him, Pogacar set up Narváez for the sprint. The Ecuadorian then accelerated on his own, but Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) responded. When it became clear that the Czech rider was too strong, Pogacar went for it himself.

But the gap to the leaders hadn’t been closed yet. They reached the summit with a lead of about thirty seconds. At the front, Grégoire and Marcel Camprubí (Pinarello) had rejoined the group, so it was six riders against Pogacar, Vacek, and Eulálio, who had fallen back. They watched the leaders ride away, but there were only four kilometers to go!

The front-runners couldn’t afford to hesitate for a second, because Vacek and Pogacar kept pushing hard. They closed in very closely, so Lemmen decided to accelerate under the banner. He couldn’t break away and eventually had to concede defeat to Grégoire. Pogacar and his teammates fell just a few seconds short, but still managed to gain a good half-minute on their rivals.