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Tadej Pogačar didn’t land his initial sledgehammer attack on stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie, so he polished off his rivals in a sprint instead.
The team UAE dominator outkicked Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), and Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a reduced sprint on Wednesday after his climbing attack – shock – didn’t deliver the damage.
After missing out in the opening prologue on Tuesday, the victory marks the first win of Pogačar’s career at the Swiss race.
The 27-year-old is debuting in Romandie this week looking to add a different line to his palmarès – and it’s going pretty well so far.
Bonuses at the line boost Pogačar into the GC lead, 7 seconds ahead of future Tour de France rival Lipowitz.
Pogačar was coy when asked at the finish whether he had hoped his climbing attack would be decisive.
“I didn’t plan anything. But it’s nice to take the win against the youngers,” Pogačar said at the finish.
“It was a really nice race, but really quick. I’m really happy with the sprint against these guys,” he said.
Pogačar warns more is to come: ‘The best form of defense is attack’
Pogačar launched what could have been his hammerblow around 38km from the line Wednesday. The Slovenian superstar opened the turbos midway up the brutally steep climb that dominated the parcours.
However, Martinez wasn’t going anywhere.
The Frenchman stuck with King Pog before Lipowitz came across ahead of the summit. Nordhagen bridged on the descent, and the stage hung on whether the four attackers could fend off a strong chase group.
Pogačar was left to do the world champion’s share of the work on the 20km drag race to the finish.
Martinez and Nordhagen did token turns, but Lipowitz wasn’t pulling at all as Red Bull placed its bets on Primož Roglič finishing the job from the chasing group.
Pogačar landed a subtle dig at his uncooperative rival in his finish line interview.
“The last 20km was a headwind and it would be stupid for me to try something,” he said. “I was happy to have two young eager guys to pull with me, they did a super good job.
“We managed to stay in front, which is difficult with only three and one guy sitting in the wheels.”
Some wondered ahead of the race whether Pogačar could win every stage of the mountainous Romandie race.
Pogačar didn’t rule out trying it.
“We saw it was on us all day today, and the team did a super good job, so I’m super happy to take the yellow,” he said. “We’ll now try to defend it every stage. And the best form of defense is attack.”
Results – Tour de Romandie stage 1:
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