Pogačar won four stages and the overall title without much difficulty, but Lipowitz, Martinez and Godon also left indelible marks on the Swiss stage race.
Cor Vos
Tadej Pogačar often races like a man who knows the outcome of a race before it’s happened. His confidence and talent are such that actually getting from A to B faster than anyone else becomes little more than a formality, and his latest box ticked is the Tour de Romandie.
The world champion took his fourth stage win (of six) of the race on the summit finish finale, wrapping up overall victory in the process. His exploits on Sunday afternoon won him his 116th and 117th victories, also the 20th general classification title of his pro career. For almost anyone else, it would be worth noting he’d done so on his debut at the race, but that means little attached to the world champion.
More notable is the fact that the Swiss event is the first stage race of Pogačar’s season, in itself more than doubling his total number of race days thus far in 2026. This has seen a marked difference in the Slovenian’s approach, in that he’s raced more conservatively and forged a lead bit by bit, culminating in overall victory by less than a minute over a strong Florian Lipowitz who has been firmly in stage-racing mode since February.
[race_result id=12 stage_id=90118 count=10 gc=10 year=2026]
“Every win is important, so of course it’s important to win and to finish off the job of the team,” Pogačar told Cycling Pro Net. He added later in the press conference, “It was a super big climb, a big battle. The opponents were really strong, especially Florian, congrats to him for the fight, he was super strong. It was hard to follow him at one moment, but at the end, the last 600 metres, he started first and I knew it’s pretty long. I hoped that he don’t find some crazy legs in the last metres, so I try to pass him. I was really happy to take the win.”
Though disappointed that Lipowitz opted to sit in the wheels when off the front with Pogačar, Lenny Martinez and Jørgen Nordhagen on stage 1, the world champion has been complimentary of his closest rival’s performance since the race hit the mountains on Saturday, even saying “I was really suffering” under Lipowitz’s pressure on the final descent of stage 4. 24 hours after Lipowitz followed Pogačar’s attack on the Jaunpass, the 25-year-old Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe leader took the initiative on the Cat.1 finishing climb to Leysin (14.3 km at 5.9%).
“I expected [the attack] because he was good all week, so why not? He needed to try. If you don’t try, you don’t win. So he tried, he gave everything, and yeah, he showed that he’s really strong and I think he’s ready for the summer,” Pogačar said in the post-race press conference. “I think he’s growing as a rider still. He’s not long on the big scene, so I think he’s just getting into the rhythm. Maybe not as crazy as Paul Seixas; directly ‘boom’, I think he needs more time. But I think he has big big potential for the future.
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