Tadej Pogačar storms to victory in stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie

 

 

On stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie, Tadej Pogačar took the day's honours and in doing so, became the new race leader.

 

Just 24 hours on from the opening prologue, Pogačar stamped his authority on the race for UAE Team Emirates-XRG. For the world champion, it was his first road stage of the season, and his first stage victory of 2026.

 

The win moves Pogačar to five victories for the campaign, and puts he and his Emirati squad into control of the race leader's yellow jersey.

 

Just three days on from his Liège-Bastogne-Liège triumph, Pogačar eyed up his opportunity to put his general classification rivals under pressure. Right from the off, it was UAE Team Emirates-XRG who put the squeeze on the peloton, as the day's breakaway was handily reeled in.

 

It was then, on the major climb of the day (8.9km at 9.8%), that Pogačar's teammate Pavel Sivakov produced a vicious lead-out for the Slovenian. With Sivakov opening up the show, Pogačar soon delivered a trademark acceleration, some 39km from the finish line in Martigny.

 

Initially, it was only Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious that could follow the 27-year-old's wheel, but the pair were later joined by Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar). Further up the climb, Cepeda could not stand the pace, and his place in the leading group was taken by Jørgen Nordhagen of Visma-Lease a Bike.

 

Once this front four was decided, the quartet held their advantage through the descent of the climb. Into the final 30km, it soon became clear that Lipowitz would not contribute to the pace-setting, with his teammate Primož Roglič sitting in a group behind.

 

Nevertheless, Nordhagen, Martinez and Pogačar relayed and ensured that the front group of four would sprint for the honours at the finish line. In this four-up sprint, it was Pogačar who packed the biggest punch, and took the stage 1 victory.

 

Speaking after the finish, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider heaped praise both on his breakaway companions, and his fellow teammates.

 

Pogačar: 'I did not plan anything but it was nice to take the win against the youngsters. It was a really nice race, a very quick day and happy with the win in the sprint against the three guys.

 

'Of course, the last 22km was headwind and to try to do something would be very stupid. So I was happy to have two young eager guys to pull with me. They did a super good job and they are super strong, so we managed to stay in front, which was still difficult with only three pulling and one guy sitting in the wheel. That is always harder to stay in front against a group behind, so we can be proud, all of us who were in front.

 

'I think every win is important but to win today, my first stage in a stage race this season, and to do it here in Romandie on a nice parcours, in a nice country, I really enjoyed it.

 

'We saw today it was all on us all day, the team did a super good job, so also for this reason I am super happy to take the yellow jersey. Now we will try to defend it every stage, and the best defence is to attack, so we will see how we approach the next days. It was a super job from the team today, and we have a tough week ahead of us, but I think we have a strong team to defend the yellow.'