2026 Tour de Suisse Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Tadej Pogačar (UEX) opted for the Tour de Suisse as his final stage race preparation for the Tour de France because it's one of the few major races missing from his long palmarès, and after day one he's already well on the way to adding it to that long list. After attacking 70km from the finish, the world champion rode solo into Sondrio, finishing 2'22" ahead of Richard Carapaz, with local man Andrea Bagioli another 17 seconds back in third.
The stage followed what's become a familiar pattern when Pogačar wants to play. Cédric Buellens (LOI) and Fredrik Dversnes (UKM) went clear soon after the start flag had dropped, the pair building a lead of close to three minutes.
On the first of four categorized climbs, the cat 2 Buglio in Monte, Dversnes dropped his breakaway companion and went over that ascent with a lead of 90 seconds on the bunch, which was led by a gaggle of Team UAE riders.
At the Tissot KM sprint, located in between that climb and the cat 2 Triangia, Dversnes took the two three-second bonuses on offer as the first rider through. When the bunch reached the same point, Pogačar accelerated to claim the two seconds for second place at the sprints at the start and end of the kilometer, edging out Matthew Riccitello (DCT) at the latter.
As he glanced back having collected the second two-second bonus, Pogačar realized that he had a small gap and encouraged teammate Brandon McNulty (UEX) to help increase it. Five riders joined them, Bagioli among them.
That group closed rapidly on Dversnes on the uphill approach to the Triangia climb. Pogačar then bridged across to the lone leader on his own, before his unmatchable pace took him clear of the Uno-X rider.
Further back, Carapaz and Primož Roglič (RBH) bridged up the chase group, where the pursuit of the world champion was erratic. Topping the climb, Pogačar was 1'15" clear. As the gap kept on increasing, Carapaz opted to take things into his own hands and went clear on his own.
Although the Ecuadorean never looked likely to get on terms with Pogačar and his gap to the leader grew to almost two and a half minutes, he steadily opened a 90-second advantage on the chase group, from which Bagioli attacked with 24km remaining.
Crossing the final two cat 3 climbs, Pogačar held his advantage on Carapaz, who just managed to fend off on the fast-finishing Bagioli. Just one day into this five-day race, these three riders look well set to fill the final podium places on Sunday.
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