Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) has won Stage 1 of the 2026 Tour de Suisse. The Slovenian broke away alone 70 kilometres from the finish on the 144-kilometre circuit around Sondrio and rode solo to victory on the opening day. Richard Carapaz (EF Education–EasyPost) finished second at 2:14, with Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) coming home third.
The stage began with a breakaway duo. Cedric Beullens (Lotto-Intermarché) and Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) got clear in the flat first half of the race and at one point built a lead of around three and a half minutes. As the first climbs arrived, UAE Team Emirates XRG took control of the peloton. Already on the climb to Buglio in Monte the bunch was significantly thinned out, while Dversnes was left alone at the front after dropping his breakaway companion.
After the intermediate sprint, where Pogačar picked up two bonus seconds by taking second place, the world champion lit up the race again. He reeled in Dversnes, rode past him and found himself alone in the lead with around 70 kilometres to go. Behind him a small chasing group initially formed, featuring several team leaders, from which Richard Carapaz later broke clear.
Pogačar controlled the race confidently in the closing kilometres too. On the descent he took no unnecessary risks, but on the final climb the Slovenian extended his lead once more. Bagioli made up ground in the finale but could not catch Carapaz. All the remaining chasing groups lost several minutes. With his solo victory, Pogačar takes the lead in the general classification after just the first day. The big favourite thus underlined his ambitions for the overall victory right from the opening day.
Swiss riders with no impact on the outcome
From a Swiss perspective, Marc Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla), Silvan Dillier (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Fabian Weiss (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) were on the start line. The Swiss riders, however, played no part in the fight for the stage win. At 5:38 down, Marc Hirschi finishes 24th as the best-placed Swiss.
