As it happened: Long-range solo victory for world champion on Tour de Suisse opener

Hello and welcome to live updates of the opening stage of the men's Tour de Suisse 2026. The women's race took place earlier today with a fantastic stage on Italian roads and now the men take on roughly the same route, albeit about 40km longer.

144km to go

Racing has got underway with the peloton all together for the moment.

We have already had an abandon with Alessandro Pinarello (NSN) having to leave the race. He struggled through the Giro and had come here only to immediately leave the race. A shame for the Italian.

Attack

Cedric Beullens (LOI)
Pier-Andre Cote (NSN)
Fredrik Dversnes (UXM)

With the peloton at just 15" down.

Cote sits up leaving Beullens and Dvernes out front with a small gap on the peloton.

Dvernes and Beullens now have 45" on the peloton.

The gap yawns out to 2'00" for the leaders. Cote probably wishing he had stayed with the break now as he sits in the peloton.

Primož Roglič just needs to add this race to his long list of achievements to complete the major one-week race set, however he has a certain Pogačar shaped thorn in his side...

>>> Primož Roglič takes on Tadej Pogačar at Tour de Suisse to pursue complete set of GC titles at cycling's seven major one-week stage races

Dversnes is always a dangerous man to allow into a breakaway but I don't think today he will be replicating his amazing win in Milan at the Giro where he and his breakaway companions pulled off a masterful ride to take the stage win.

120km to go

The leading duo have almost four minutes on the peloton now.

The gap to the two leaders settles down and drops slightly to 3'30" between them and the peloton.

Ominous message from the world champion before his Suisse debut...

>>> 'Training has gone very well' – New challenge for Tadej Pogačar as he completes final Tour de France tune-up on Tour de Suisse debut

The race has really settled down with Beullens and Dvernes holding their 3'30" gap on the peloton that are settling into who does the work.

100km to go

The gap has dropped further with Beullens and Dversnes holding just over three minutes on a peloton led by multiple teams. Domen Novak is doing the majority of the work for UAE Team Emirates-XRG with help from NSN, Alpecin-Premier Tech and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) has his team working on the front of the peloton so must be feeling good enough to go for the win today, but he has admitted that mixing road with mountain biking has brought it's challenges...

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After one hour of racing the average speed is up at 46kph. A rapid start to the day with just 10km to the base of the first climb, the brutally steep Buglio in Monte that really shaped the women's race this morning. That said, it did come much closer to the finish for them.

The gap is dropping to the leaders with 2'20" splitting the peloton and the duo out front. They are now just 5km from the bottom of the climb.

Some very big news for cycling fans in the UK as TNT Sports pens deal with Channel 5 to show daily highlights for all the men's Grand Tours from next month with Rebecca Charlton leading the coverage as well as the six UK stages of the 2027 men's and women's Tour Grand Departs being shown live on C5. Read more in the link below...

>>> TNT Sports strikes deal to keep Tour de France on free-to-air TV in the UK

Beullens and Dvernes lead onto the Buglio in Monte which is a 3km long climb that has an average gradient of 10.1% and a maximum gradient of 20.9%. This really sets the tone for the rest of the day.

On the climb, Dversnes has dropped Beullens on some of the steepest gradients.

Multiple riders being dropped in the peloton on the steep gradients.

Dversnes leads over the Buglio in Monte ahead of Beullens by about 1'15" with the peloton at 2'10".

UAE Team Emirates-XRG had all their riders at the front of the peloton over the top of the climb with Beullens being caught before the top of the climb.

With just Dversnes out front it means that there are a max of four bonus seconds available in the Tissot KM for the peloton that is rapidly approaching. Dversnes will take six bonus seconds.

Abandon

Matthew Dinham (Picnic-PostNL)

The peloton has been significantly reduced over the top of the climb and out of the technical descent. They are now just 1'13" away from Dversnes.

Dvernes does indeed take both Tissot KM sprints and the six bonus seconds that go with it.

In the peloton, Pogačar takes the first sprint to take second in that and the two bonus seconds. And he adds the next as well, so he takes the four bonus seconds with Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon-CMA CGM) trying to challenge him.

Attack

Tadej Pogačar (UAD)

He just roles off the front of the peloton as the leaders are whittled down on the foothills of the second climb. Richard Carapaz (EFE) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) trying to bridge with Brandon McNulty (UAD) trying to rejoin his leader as well.

70km to go

Pogačar goes clear of Dversnes with plenty of climbing to go with a group of eight riders trying to chase the world champion.

Pogačar just eased away from the chasers and now has a minute on Roglic, McNulty, Riccitello, Carapaz, Vacek, Double and Bagioli.

Jhonatan Narvaez (UAD) has joined the chase group now as well with multiple other riders joining the first chase group.

Pogačar now has 1'15" on the chasing group that has grown to about 15 riders.

60km to go

Pogačar is flying now and looks very relaxed fiddling with his radio in his jersey.

The first chase group has grown to 18 riders with multiple from UAE Team Emirates-XRG. They have a superb team here.

50km to go

Pogačar has 1'12" on a new solo chase of Carapaz who does look solid.

Carapaz has taken a good gap on the chasers and looks good in second at the moment. The gaps to Pogačar are 1'23" to Carapaz, 1'50" to the chase group and 3'12" to the group that includes Van der Poel.

Pogačar has 1'34" on Carapaz and 2'31" on the first group of riders.

It is almost a gap of two minutes now for the world champion. The race will be done before it has really got going.

The riders are now heading to the highest point of the day, funnily enough it is uncategorised.

Carapaz has a minute on the rest of the chasers. He is riding very strongly but, sadly for him, he has Pogačar two minutes ahead of him.

The likelihood that Pogačar will ride like this for the rest of the race is very high. He could possibly win this by a gigantic margin.

Mikel Landa and his Soudal-QuickStep teammate Ilan Van Wilder are now both in the main chase group who are 3'31" back on Pogačar.

Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon-CMA CGM) is leading the first group on the road for Riccitello. Benoot is returning to racing for the first time since Il Lombardia last year. He is making his racing debut for Decathlon.

30km to go

Leader:

Tadej Pogačar (UAD)

Chase +2'18":

Richard Carapaz (EF Edcuation-EasyPost)

Chase group +3'48"

To quote a bit of viral commentary from Rob Hatch... All alone in front of the crowds. Tadej Pogačar has lost 20" to Carapaz, though.

Attack

Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek)

The Italian rider has about 30" on the rest of the chasers but a huge gap up to Pogačar and also Carapaz.

20km to go

Carapaz is 2'06" down on Pogačar. Bagioli is 3'23" down and the chase group is at 4'06".

Pogačar has started the penultimate climb of the day, the Ponte in Valtellina which is 1.6km with an average of 8.9% and a max of 10.6%.

Pogačar now descending to the valley floor where he goes to one final climb with a gap of 2'27" over Carapaz, 3'06" over Bagioli and 4'47" on the first group on the road.

10km to go

Bagioli is closing on Carapaz. He is about 30" away from the Ecuadorian.

Pogačar takes the intermediate sprint, no bonus seconds at this one. He now heads to the final climb of the Bordighi which is 1.2km long with an average gradient of 12% and max of 16%.

Pogačar also takes the combativity prize for the day, which is understandable but maybe would've been nice to give it to Dversnes or Carapaz instead.

5km to go

Pogačar is still pushing hard here on the final climb. He hasn't dropped out of the big ring once today. Incredible riding.

Bagioli now looks like he might be fading as he starts to lose a bit of time to Carapaz as they both start the final climb.

2km to go for Pogačar. Carapaz is 2'30" behind him, Bagioli at 3'03" and the chase group at 4'54".

Flamme Rouge

Tadej Pogačar has just put on a show today and is going to win by miles.

500 metres to go.

Tadej Pogačar of UAE Team Emirates-XRG wins stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse and, very likely, a decisive GC margin to win the overall of the entire race.

Carapaz now has 1km to go with Bagioli a matter of maybe 15" behind the Ecuadorian.

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) finishes second at 2'13" with Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) at 2'28".

Van Wilder leads in Vacek, McNulty, Kelderman and Grosschartner with another group coming across the line then Primož Roglič on his own off the back.

Stage 1 top 10

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAD) 3:28'51"
2. Richard Carapaz (EFE) +2'14"
3. Andrea Bagioli (LTK) +2'29"
4. Ilan Van Wilder (SOQ) +4'02"
5. Mathias Vacek (LTK)
6. Brandon McNulty (UAD)
7. Wilco Kelderman (TVL) all S.T.
8. Felix Großschartner (UAD) +4'05"
9. AJ August (NCI) +4'30"
10. Jhonatan Narváez (UAD) S.T.

GC

1. Tadej Pogačar (UAD) 3:28'37"
2. Richard Carapaz (EFE) +2'22"
3. Andrea Bagioli (LTK) +2'39"

A perfect way to debut at a race, by winning the first stage by over two minutes!

I have a feeling this is going to be the theme for the rest of the week.

Pogačar takes the points and mountains jerseys as well with points being worn by Carapaz tomorrow and the KOM jersey by Dversnes thanks to being able to get over the first climb before getting caught. The best young riders jersey belongs to Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek).

That brings our live updates to a close for today with Tadej Pogačar dominating everyone on his Tour de Suisse debut. Thank you very much for following along.

Make sure to keep tabs on out home page for all the latest news and reactions from the men's and women's Tour de Suisse as well as the Tour of Slovenia and Tour of Belgium that got underway today, plus the latest stage from the Giro Next Gen, US championships, Wout Van Aert missing the Tour, TNT Sports doiing a deal with Channel 5 in the UK and much more besides, it is all here on Cyclingnews...