Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) played the tactical finale to stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie perfectly, marking all of the opportunistic attacks thrown at him on the final climb, before timing his sprint just right to pip Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) to the line in Vucherens from a reduced group.
Godon was among the big favourites for the day, highlighted in his Ineos Grenadiers team doing almost all of the chasing to control the four-rider breakaway. But as they reached the last ascent of three up the key climb to Vulliers, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe pushed to pace and Godon started to struggle.
Pogačar was isolated on his own in the leader's yellow jersey, but easily chased down any of the moves that came from Movistar and Red Bull's Lipowitz.
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As the final sprint approached, Godon had made it back in and hit the front at full pace, but Pogačar was ominously still seated in his slipstream and exploded out of it to blast past the French champion and Finn-Fisher-Black for the victory. With 10 more bonus seconds gained on the line, Pogačar extended his overall lead of the race to 17 seconds over Lipowitz. This also added to his almost spotless record in 2026, winning six of the eight race days he's completed so far.
"I knew the sprint was going to be tough because of the climbs before, and it was indeed a super fast climb with tailwind," said Pogačar as he recalled the finale of his 114th victory as a professional.
"Then for the sprint, it was headwind and quite downhill, so I knew you couldn't be too much in front. After the last corner, I was too much in front and suddenly some guys came, but they were too early, and it was advantage for me.
"[The last climb didn't] make the difference in time gaps, no, but it makes a difference in the legs, and if you go over the limit for sure then it's harder to do a good sprint. But luckily, for me it was all under control and I could still do a good sprint."
How it unfolded
Stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie saw the riders set out from Rue with an undulating 173.1-kilometre course, which featured over 3000m of elevation gain, dipping in between the Fribourg and Vaud cantons, set to bring the riders to the finish in Vucherens.
There was only one categorised climb on the route, to Vulliens (3.1 km at 5.4%), for the climbers and puncheurs to eye up, but they would have three chances to make the difference on the laps around Chapelle, with the last rep coming just before a downhill and final flat run to the finish line.
An early breakaway of four formed in the first 30 minutes of racing, with Italian national champion, Filippo Conca (Jayco AlUla), getting up the road alongside Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek), Roland Thalmann (Tudor), and Henri-François Renard-Haquin (Picnic PostNL).
They quickly build a lead of more than two minutes with Ineos Grenadiers and race leaders UAE Team Emirates-XRG contributing to the controlling efforts in the main peloton.
Little changed as the break and then the peloton got a look at the finish line with 50km to go, but Ineos had halved the break's lead to just a minute, looking to launch French champion Dorian Godon to his second stage win of the week.
Into the final 22km, Ineos kept the pressure on, but also kept control of the leading quartet, allowing them to stay around 30 seconds in front as they began to wind up for the finale. It was fully on them for much of the final phase on stage 2, with UAE sitting in second position but not contributing anything to the chase after Vegard Stake Laengen was dropped.
The break pressed on into the final 10, with their 30-second lead still intact, but with the last time up the 3km climb to Vulliens still to tackle, where they looked likely to get caught. Ineos were running out of firepower in support of Godon, however, so those behind would have begun to get interested in testing him on the uphill.
Söderqvist pushed a massive gear on the descent into the valley road, distancing his companions from the break and going solo onto the small kicker, which acted as the lead into the final categorised climb.
There was a change behind, with UAE moving into control in the last 8km to possibly set up Pogačar for a closing flourish on stage 2. And once the peloton hit the climb, the leading group started to splinter.
It was Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe who had taken over and accelerated for their GC riders, with Godon struggling to hold onto the stronger and lighter climbers sitting in front of him. Pogačar was on his own, but with no real worries, sat in second wheel in the peloton.
There was a brief attack by Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda (Movistar), but Pogačar easily marked him, albeit without trying to push on and counter on the small climb. This acceleration did for Söderqvist with 4km to go after a valiant effort.
Movistar kept on trying to get away, with Pablo Castrillo and Cepeda once more, but again, Pogačar pushed on to chase him down. Without any teammates, though, the yellow jersey was still isolated, but he never looked stressed.
After their earlier moves, Red Bull's Florian Lipowitz finally burst into life with two attacks in the final 2.5km, but neither came to anything and both the recovering Godon and Pogačar were sat ominously prepared to sprint.
Godon hit the front first and looked good for his second victory of the race, holding off a fast-approaching Finn Fisher-Black on his left shoulder, but unfortunately for him, Pogačar was coming much quicker on his right-hand side as he battled against the headwind.
The Slovenian slingshotted out of his wheel, holding up a peace sign over the finish line with time to celebrate. A terrifying sign for those attempting to challenge his all-conquering dominance in Romandie, with his two stage victories in a row preceding the much harder remaining three stages, where anything but extending his already large leading gap would be a huge surprise.
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