On Wednesday’s first stage of the 79th Tour de Romandie in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Tadej Pogačar earned his first career Romandie stage victory. The world champion flew away with three others on the day’s final climb and then prevailed in the sprint down in the valley. He took over the race lead from Dorian Godon.
Preliminaries
Prologue victor and first leader Godon’s first year with Ineos has been a smashing success. The mustachioed Frenchman has stage wins in this season’s Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya and now the Tour de Romandie. His lead over Tadej Pogačar was seven seconds, eight over Primož Roglič.
The Course
Every Wednesday climb was 8.5+ percent. Each early circuit contained short, steep La Rasse, sure to elicit a ding dong KOM fight. There was a wicked climb verging on HC-rated cresting with 34.3 km to go. The last 2.7 km was 10.4 percent.
Seven chaps dash up the road soon after the start in Martigny to vie for the sky-blue dot king of the mountains jersey. Swiss Roland Thalmann sopped up the maximum points on the first two ascents of La Rasse. The third passage of La Rasse snipped off two fugitives from the gang. Thalmann struck again.
Ovronnaz is an 8.9-km ascent of 9.8 percent. The breakaway arrived at its foot with a 1:30 gap. Just at the point when the UAE-Emirates-powered peloton reached the breakaway, Pogačar attacked. Lenny Martinez found his wheel, while Red Bull duo Florian Lipowitz and Roglič chased.
At the crest, Pogačar, Martinez and Lipowitz went over 12 seconds before Jørgen Nordhagen, Martinez grabbing the maximum KOM points and the jersey away from Thalmann. Nordhagen tagged on on the flat. The quartet just did enough on the way to the finish line to avoid Roglič’s 13-strong chase. Pogačar had to get on Lipowitz’s case to have the German pull.
In the four-up sprint, the Slovenian proved the fastest.
More circuits are on tap for Thursday, a Cat. 3 climb ending the day.
79th Tour de Romandie, Stage 1
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 3:56:55
2) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) s.t.
3) Lenny Martinez (France/Bahrain-Victorious) s.t.
79th Tour de Romandie GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 4:00:27
2) Florian Lipowitz (Germany/Red Bull) +0:07
3) Lenny Martinez (France/Bahrain-Victorious) +0:17
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