Sunday’s conclusion of the 89th Tour de Suisse was also a hideously mountainous queen stage that Tadej Pogačar won on his way to the title. UAE-Emirates has earned six out of ten 2026 WorldTour stage races and Pogačar has both Switzerland-based competitions, Romandie and Suisse, in his pocket.
How the GC stacked up
Barring abject disaster, leader Pogačar had little to fear on the last day, but second place Richard Carapaz had Mathias Vacek five seconds behind him. Vacek’s teammate Andrea Bagioli was crowding them both.
The Final Stage
Sunday was essentially three climbs of HC-rated Col de la Croix over 150 km. Starting midway up the climb, the riders would go on to do two 19-km, 7 percent ascents before a final clamber that ended, again, midway up Col de la Croix. It was a hot day for clambering up HC mountains.
Eleven chaps got clear on the opening slopes which acted as a Cat. 2, Louis Vervaeke underscoring his KOM lead by tipping over first. At the foot of the first proper Col de la Croix, the break’s lead was 1:30. Meanwhile, several riders called it a day. Vervaeke practically wrapped up the mountains classification at the crest.
The next full climb of de la Croix saw the fugitives 1:45 ahead of the UAE-Emirates-driven yellow jersey. The peloton simply didn’t do enough to pull back the escapees. When Decathlon-CMA-CGM took over the pace making, Bagioli lost contact.
The Final Climb
Bart Lemmen, Nairo Quintana and Lenny Martinez cracked off the front of the breakaway when the road tilted towards the sky. The world champion attacked and started picking off riders between him and a now-solo Martinez. Martinez put up a heck of a resistance, 20 seconds up on the yellow jersey with 2 km to go.
Pogačar snatched Martinez just before the red kite and then dispatched the Frenchman.
The Tour de France begins on Tuesday, July 4.
89th Tour de Suisse Stage 5
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 4:12:24
2) Lenny Martinez (France/Bahrain-Victorious) +0:07
3) Bart Lemmen (The Netherlands/Visma-Lease a Bike) +1:33
89th Tour de Suisse Final GC
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 15:08:44
2) Richard Carapaz (Ecuador/EF Education-Easypost) +6:32
3) Mathias Vacek (Czech Republic/Lidl-Trek) +6:53