Tour de Romandie: Tadej Pogačar sprints to stage 1 win and race lead from small breakaway in first climbing test

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) collected his fifth victory of the season on his seventh day of racing in 2026, winning stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie and moving into the overall lead of the race.

Having placed sixth in Tuesday’s opening prologue, Pogačar returned to winning ways on Wednesday’s opening road stage, which featured the first mountain he has scaled in competition in 2026.

The world champion attacked and ripped up the field on that climb over Ovronnaz and although he didn’t launch into one of his long-range solo raids, he was able to triumph in a four-man sprint down in the valley in Martigny.

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Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was second in that sprint, just ahead of Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), with Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) the final member across the line.

Just 20 seconds later, after what was a tense 23km run along the valley to finish the stage, Albert Withen Philipsen (Lidl-Trek) led a dozen-rider chase group over the line, which included dropped GC hopefuls such as Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

"The last 23km was headwind and to try to do something would be very stupid," Pogačar said, referencing the flat run along the valley that followed the descent of Ovronnaz and explaining why he perhaps rode within himself on that climb.

Martinez was impressive in going with him, and Lipowitz soon got on terms after his teammate Primož Roglič attempted to follow immediately but faded quickly. Nordhagen gave chase alone and only made contact in the valley, with the quartet managing to stay away despite seeing their lead shrink from a minute to 15 seconds inside the final kilometre.

"I was happy to have two young eager guys to pull with me, they did super good job, they were super strong," said Pogačar. He hadn't counted up wrong; rather, Lipowitz was not included in that praise; the German was a passenger who refused to share any workload as Red Bull leaned on Roglič's presence in the group behind.

That group very nearly came roaring back into it. Having started the valley slog a minute behind, the 12 riders worked well together and could see the leaders just 15 seconds in front as they entered the final kilometre. And when Martinez and Nordhagen then suddenly decided to join Lipowitz in the passenger seat, it looked like it could all come back together.

But Pogačar, though not hiding his frustration, shouldered the responsibility in keeping the pace up heading towards the home straight, and kicked comfortably clear before raising an arm emphatically in the sky.

Pogačar moves into the yellow jersey with a lead of seven seconds over Lipowitz on the general classification, with Martinez third at 16 seconds.

How it unfolded

The opening road stage of the Tour de Romandie started and finished in Martigny, with a 171.2km route that featured three loops of a circuit featuring the short La Rasse climb, ahead of the far greater obstacle of Ovronnaz, a climb that measures 8.9km at an average gradient of 9.7%. However, with the stage not finishing at the top nor at the bottom, but rather back in Martigny at the end of a flat 23km valley road, the stage was set for a tactical conundrum.

The early breakaway was made up of seven quality riders: Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep), Pietro Mattio (Visma-Lease a Bike), Patrick Gamper (Jayco-AlUla), Roland Thalmann (Tudor), and the Picnic-PostNL duo of Alexy Faure Prost and Dillon Corkery.

They built a lead of three minutes, with Thalmann the first to the top of all three ascents of the category-3 La Rasse as he looked to amass points in the mountains classification.

The Ineos Grenadiers team of the prologue winner and yellow jersey wearer Dorion Godon did a big shift on the front of the peloton, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG coming increasingly to the fore as they came towards the bigger climb.

When the haul to Ovronnaz began with just over 40km to go, Godon was quickly dropped as the peloton thinned under UAE’s increased tempo.

Vegard Stake Laengen did the lower slopes on behalf of Pogačar, followed by Kevin Vermaerke, and later Pavel Sivakov to launch the world champion’s inevitable attack, which would wipe out the breakaway.

It came 4km from the summit, and it was decisive, if not an emphatic solo affair. Roglič was first to react but soon had to relent, with Martinez instead the quickest to get on terms. Lipowitz worked his way across with Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar).

Roglič found himself further down in a bigger group where Nordhagen and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) were active.

Pogačar upped the pace in the final 1,500 meters of the climb, dropping Cepeda and causing Lipowitz to dangle for the rest of the climb. Behind, Nordhagen made strong advances, first with Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) then alone, to chase what was now a leading trio.

At the summit, Pogačar slowed and allowed Martinez through for maximum mountains points and the jersey itself. Nordhagen crested at an arrears of 12 seconds and, after reducing that to five on the descent, made the final jump across on the flat to make it a quartet for the run-in.

Cepeda was swept up in the valley by the chase group, which began to make steady ground up on the leaders. Pogačar, Martinez, and Nordhagen turned well together, but Lipowitz steadfastly ignored any invitations to collaborate.

There was increasing drama on the run-in as the gap came down, and especially when Pogačar completed a long turn with 2km to go. He flicked his elbow, but no one came through. Martinez declined this time, and Nordhagen had already just set up shop on the back, even behind Lipowitz.

Pogačar kept asking for help but didn’t call the others’ bluff, instead keeping a solid enough tempo to see them to the line. Nordhagen attempted to surprise with a flying attack into the final right-hand bend, but Pogačar soon opened the taps and stormed clear in convincing fashion.

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