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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.
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.
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.
Dvernes does indeed take both Tissot KM sprints and the six bonus seconds that go with it.
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.
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.
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.
Dversnes leads over the Buglio in Monte ahead of Beullens by about 1’15” with the peloton at 2’10”.
Multiple riders being dropped in the peloton on the steep gradients.
On the climb, Dversnes has dropped Beullens on some of the steepest gradients.
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.
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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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
Ominous message from the world champion before his Suisse debut…
The gap to the two leaders settles down and drops slightly to 3’30” between them and the peloton.
120km to go
The leading duo have almost four minutes on the peloton now.
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.
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…
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.
Dvernes and Beullens now have 45″ on the peloton.
Cote sits up leaving Beullens and Dvernes out front with a small gap on the peloton.
Attack
Cedric Beullens (LOI)
Pier-Andre Cote (NSN)
Fredrik Dversnes (UXM)
With the peloton at just 15″ down.
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.
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.
