2026 Tour de Suisse Stage 5 Results & Recap
Stage 5 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) ended the Tour de Suisse as he started it, riding solo to victory on the final stage at Villars sur Ollon, where he finished seven seconds ahead of Lenny Martinez (TBV), the last survivor of the almost stage-long breakaway, who was reeled in and dropped just 800 metres from the line. Bart Lemmen (TVL) took third place, 1'33" behind the winner.
The GC favorites came in two minutes and more behind Pogačar, who pushed his overall margin of victory out to 6'32" on second-placed Richard Carapaz (EFE), while Mathias Vacek (LTK) produced by far the best stage race performance of his career by retaining third place, 6'53" back.
Run on a loop over the Col de la Croix that started and finished in Villars sur Ollon halfway up that climb, the stage began with a cat 2 ascent to the pass straight out of the gate. Mountains leader Louis Vervaeke led over it and was one of 11 breakaway riders who came together just beyond that summit.
As well as Martinez and Lemmen, the group also featured Jayco duo Mauro Schmid and Paul Double, Nairo Quintana (MOV), Bauke Mollema (LTK), Andrew August (NCI), Finn Fisher-Black (RBH), Afonso Eulálio (TBV) and Mattia Gaffuri (TPP).
When Vervaeke led over the Col de la Croix the second time around to wrap up the mountains classification, the break's advantage was 1'50". The next time up the pass, August, Eulálio and Double were dropped before the break reached the summit, where Martinez led over the top to take the prize remembering his team's former rider Gino Mäder, who died on this race in 2023.
Reaching the foot of the climb for the third and final time, the break's lead was close to two minutes. Lemmen attacked from the group almost as soon as the road ramped upwards. Martinez and Quintana were the only riders who were able to jump across to the Dutchman.
When the bunch was only a little way past that same point, with a little less than 10km remaining, Pogačar made his move. Carapaz briefly held his wheel, but quickly eased off to ride at a pace within his limits.
Perhaps prompted by radio of events occurring behind, Martinez accelerated clear of his two companions a few moments later.
A cat and mouse contest began. With 6km remaining, Martinez had a minute on the race leader, who was gobbling up dropped breakaway riders like a two-wheeled Pac-Man. With 5km to go, Martinez had a lead of 40 seconds on the race leader, who had just flashed past Quintana and then Lemmen.
With 3k to go the gap was 25 seconds, with two it was 20 seconds. With one, it was 20 metres. Moments later, Pogačar stood on his pedals for the first time and shot past the Frenchman, determined not to let Martinez take his wheel.
The stage was won and so too was one of the few missing races from Pogačar's palmarès, although he's looked certain to correct this omission since waltzing away from everyone on day one.
Get our full coverage of the Tour de Suisse and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
