{"id":123160,"date":"2026-06-17T15:53:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/pogacar-crushes-tour-de-france-hopes\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:53:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:53:43","slug":"pogacar-crushes-tour-de-france-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/17\/pogacar-crushes-tour-de-france-hopes\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Crushes Tour de France Hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"justify-start\">\n<nav class=\"align-left col-span-full mb-base\" data-pom-e2e-test-id=\"breadcrumbs\"\/>\n<p>Tour de Suisse stage 1: Poga\u010dar blows everybody&#8217;s doors off with 69km solo rampage as he puts the finishing touches on his Tour de France form.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"border-border-light border-t py-base-tight\">\n<div class=\"flex h-4 justify-between\">\n<div class=\"flex gap-x-base-tight\">\n<div class=\"\"><button class=\"inline-flex shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full hover:cursor-pointer bg-bg-surface hover:bg-bg-light focus:bg-bg-dark text-primary border border-solid border-border-light aria-pressed:bg-brand-primary aria-pressed:text-text-surface py-very-tight px-base-tight gap-tight font-semibold font-utility-2 opacity-50\" aria-label=\"Loading audio\" aria-pressed=\"false\" id=\"article-listen-button\" disabled=\"\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 18\" fill=\"none\" class=\"\"><title>Listen to this article<\/title><path d=\"M12.5265 16.2C12.2326 16.2 12.0122 16.1265 11.7184 16.053C11.2775 15.9061 10.9102 15.6122 10.6898 15.2449C10.4694 14.8775 10.3959 14.4367 10.5428 13.9959L11.5714 10.3959C11.6449 10.1755 11.7184 9.95509 11.8653 9.80815C12.0122 9.66121 12.1592 9.51427 12.3796 9.36733C12.6 9.29386 12.8204 9.2204 13.0408 9.14693C13.2612 9.14693 13.4816 9.14693 13.702 9.2204H13.7755C14.2163 9.36733 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10.6898 3.41631 11.0571C3.26938 11.351 3.19591 11.7184 3.26938 12.0857C3.34285 12.3061 3.34284 12.5265 3.41631 12.6735L3.71019 13.849ZM13.2612 10.3224C13.1877 10.3224 13.1877 10.3224 13.2612 10.3224C13.1143 10.3224 13.0408 10.3224 12.9673 10.3959C12.8939 10.4694 12.8204 10.4694 12.8204 10.4694C12.7469 10.5428 12.7469 10.6163 12.7469 10.6898L11.7184 14.2898C11.6449 14.4367 11.7184 14.5837 11.7918 14.7306C11.8653 14.8775 12.0122 14.951 12.0857 15.0245C12.3796 15.0979 12.5265 15.0979 12.7469 15.0979C12.9673 15.0979 13.1877 15.0245 13.3347 14.8775C13.5551 14.8041 13.702 14.6571 13.849 14.4367C13.9959 14.2898 14.0694 14.0694 14.1428 13.849L14.5102 12.6735C14.5837 12.5265 14.5837 12.3061 14.6571 12.1592C14.7306 11.7918 14.6571 11.4245 14.5102 11.1306C14.2898 10.7633 13.9959 10.4694 13.5551 10.3224H13.4816C13.3347 10.3224 13.2612 10.3224 13.2612 10.3224Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"hidden sm:inline\">Listen<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/p>\n<p class=\"fp-leadCaption py-tight text-left font-utility text-utility3-size leading-utility3-line-height text-secondary\"> (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>Updated June 17, 2026 10:22AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/tadej-pogacar\" rel=\"noopener\">Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> reminded everyone who\u2019s the six-star favorite for the <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" rel=\"noopener\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"http:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/tour-de-france\">Tour de France<\/a> with a devastating solo raid on Wednesday at the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/tag\/tour-de-suisse\" rel=\"noopener\">Tour de Suisse.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Poga\u010dar breezed away from the group of favorites, toyed with a doomed breakaway rider, and then romped to a 69km solo victory on the opening stage of the 5-day race.<\/p>\n<p>He crossed the line 2:14 ahead of lone chaser Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) after a rampage that was on par with his soloes at Strade Bianche and the 2024 road world championships.<\/p>\n<p>Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) came to the line third at 2:29 after he made a blazing late chase for Carapaz but couldn\u2019t quite make the catch.<\/p>\n<p>It was a beyond-emphatic start for the Poga\u010dar as he puts the final touches on his Tour de France form.<\/p>\n<h2>Poga\u010dar hails textbook set-up by UAE Emirates XRG<\/h2>\n<p>Even more concerning for Jonas Vingegaard and Co., Poga\u010dar\u2019s teammates at UAE Emirates-XRG looked on-point on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Brandon McNulty delivered the final pulls for Poga\u010dar\u2019s attack. The Arizonan then disrupted the chase with his UAE henchmen Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez and Felix Gro\u00dfschartner.<\/p>\n<p>All three of them are slated to line up behind Poga\u010dar at the <em>Grand D\u00e9part<\/em> in Barcelona next month.<\/p>\n<p>Poga\u010dar made it look easy Wednesday, but denied it was just some training ride.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was hard. It was a really hard day,\u201d he said in his winner\u2019s interview. \u201cThe start was easy, but with the first climb of the day, it was already super hard. The team did an amazing pace there. Then me and Brandon [McNulty] looked at each other and said \u2018let\u2019s go, we\u2019ll try something\u2019 and from then on we just went.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was definitely not the plan today, but somehow it worked,\u201d he continued. \u201cThanks to the team, because without blocking and setting the pace before that, this wouldn\u2019t have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Poga\u010dar silences doubts after off-key ride in Romandie<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_989543\" class=\"pom-image-wrap photo-alignnone\"><img alt=\"Poga\u010dar Tour de Suisse\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-989543\" style=\"color:transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2281437584.jpg?width=1080&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover 1x, https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2281437584.jpg?width=2048&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover 2x\" src=\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2281437584.jpg?width=2048&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=75&amp;fit=cover\"\/><figcaption class=\"pom-caption\"><span class=\"article__caption\">It was game over when Poga\u010dar went solo at 69km to go of Tour de Suisse.<\/span> (Photo: Marco BERTORELLO \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After a typically dominant but slightly <a target=\"_self\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-countdown-for-pogacar-rivals\/\" rel=\"noopener\">off-key ride at the Tour de Romandie<\/a> in early May, this was peak Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n<p>The four-time Tour de France champion looked two levels above what\u2019s a low-key GC field. Carapaz, Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, and Lenny Martinez are the only riders with a chance of stopping him from winning the Swiss race on debut this week.<\/p>\n<p>Poga\u010dar\u2019s initial move off the front of a small split of classification riders at 72km to go of Wednesday\u2019s stage <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Eurosport_ES\/status\/2067255205138149538\" rel=\"noopener\">looked like it was almost a mistake.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He floated up to breakaway rider Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) and then dispatched the Norseman without drawing breath.<\/p>\n<p>When Poga\u010dar got clear at 69km to go, he held his gap at a steady 70-90 seconds before he opened the turbos in the final 40km of the short, hilly course.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no radio so I didn\u2019t know what was going on behind so I just kept riding hard,\u201d Poga\u010dar said after the stage. \u201cWhen I knew the gap was quite big I could settle into the rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carapaz began his solo pursuit at around 50km to go, but the Ecuadorian must have known he was racing for second.<\/p>\n<p>Bagioli hung around in the bunch until around 20km to go until he launched out for third.<\/p>\n<p>The TLDR from stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse?<\/p>\n<p>Tour de France hopefuls, be warned \u2013 King Pog is back, and he\u2019s moving fast.<\/p>\n<h2>Tour de Suisse stage 1 results:<\/h2>\n<p><iframe class=\"fp-remove\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.procyclingstats.com\/widgets\/result.php?h=61ea7e0ba629d017546b1d2b1768aa06165f2e1b\" width=\"520\" height=\"320\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><span hidden=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-suisse-stage-1-pogacar-crushes-everyone\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tour de Suisse stage 1: Poga\u010dar blows everybody&#8217;s doors off with 69km solo rampage as he puts the finishing touches on his Tour de France form. Listen to this articleListen (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images) Updated June 17, 2026 10:22AM Tadej Poga\u010dar reminded everyone who\u2019s the six-star favorite for the Tour de France with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}