Agony for Van Der Poel in Tour de Suisse TT

Tadej Pogačar denied Mathieu van der Poel at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders this year, and once again broke the Dutchman’s heart with a last gasp time trial victory at the Tour de Suisse.

The Slovenian Slayer was, as race leader, the last man off and kept the tension high throughout, first going 4.99 seconds faster than Van der Poel at the intermediate check, but then riding slightly slower than his rival over the second half of the course.

With tight, twisting turns inside the final kilometer it looked uncertain if he could win, but Pogačar dug deep, pivoted the corners perfectly and hit the line .31 of a second faster.

Van der Poel had spent 52 minutes at the top of the leaderboard and dreamed of a big win, but ended up with an exasperated smile on his face when it was all over. He got up, strode out and will doubtlessly replay his effort over and over again in his mind this evening.

As for Pogačar, he was left grinning. It is his second stage win of the race and, in catching closest rival Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) about two thirds of the way through, he has extended his overall lead to 4:22.

Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) put in a fine effort, placing fourth, 10.79 seconds back. He moves up a place to third overall, 4:27 back, with teammate Andrea Bagioli bumped down to fourth overall.

“It was really hot out there and a really fast parcours. I felt great, good legs,” Pogačar smiled. “I didn’t know that I am fighting for the win, I just want to give it all. I knew I was close.

“After the intermediate point I didn’t know any more times, I was just trying to go all out to the finish. I managed to do it well and I am super happy to take the win.”

‘Van der Poel surprised me a bit’

The result is a mood booster prior to the Tour de France, where Pogačar will clash with the world’s best in a 26km time trial on stage 16. The Évian les-Bains test is hillier than Saturday’s Suisse effort, but only 2.2km longer.

That makes Pogačar’s latest effort a good tester for next month, even if he might have had things a little more straightforward on Saturday had there been more climbing.

Winning on such flat terrain will do his morale no harm, and puts him in a good place heading into the final stage Sunday.

As for Van der Poel, as disappointed as he will be to miss out by a tiny margin, the result is also a reassurance for him. He hasn’t race since Paris-Roubaix and while he was a long way back on stages one and two, fifth place on Friday and second on Saturday show that he’s gaining form at just the right time for the Tour.

Vacek will be similarly encouraged. He was very impressive in handling Pogačar on stage two, almost bridging across to the winning break with the Slovenian, and he looked in good shape on Saturday.

“I knew that Van der Poel had the best time. It surprised me a bit, but a very good job by him,” he said. “Congrats to him. It has been a few strong riders here, so I knew it was going to be hard to win it. But I gave it my best and it went how it went.”

Coming up: A huge test of Tour form

Next up is the big showdown of this year’s race. Sunday’s 151.1km stage starts and ends in Villars-Sur-Ollon and has 4,226 meters of climbing. It’s a ferocious course, and one Pogačar said he is looking forward to.

“It is a brutal stage, I think, completely different to what we had in the last few days. I’m looking really forward to see the legs in the mountains, how they are. Today was a flat TT, tomorrow one of the biggest mountain stages ever. I am really excited to see where I am.

“I am happy to take the second win and tomorrow on the last day we fight for another one.”

Tour de Suisse rivals, consider yourself warned.