AARBURG (Switzerland) — Tadej Pogacar extended his Tour of Switzerland lead after sensationally pipping his one-day classics rival Mathieu van der Poel by just three tenths of a second in individual time-trial.
Starting last as the race leader, world champion Pogacar drilled his effort over the 23.7km route around Aarburg as hard as he could, right to the line, and it proved enough to deny Van der Poel a morale-boosting victory.
“I felt great. I didn’t know I was fighting for the win. I knew it was close,” said Pogacar, who has won two of the first four stages and is the overwhelming favourite for the finale in the high mountains.
“I was just trying to go all out to the finish and I’m really happy with the win,” he said according to AFP.
“It’s a great race and I’m happy to take a second win.”
Pogacar now has 11 wins this season in just 15 race days.
As for the overall picture at the mountainous Swiss tour, Pogacar gained more than a minute and a half on his nearest challenger, former Giro d’Italia winner Richard Carapaz, to extend his lead to 4min 22sec.
Czech Mathias Vacek moved up a place to third overall with an impressive fourth-placed finish on the day and now sits just five seconds behind Carapaz in the overall standings.
Young Italian Andrea Bagioli dropped a place in the overall standings to fourth at 4:46 after finishing 43rd in the race against the clock.
Van der Poel had sat in the leader’s chair for around an hour watching the final 50 riders come to the finish.
It was not until the last half a dozen or so that his time came under threat as first Norwegian Tobias Foss finished six seconds slower and then Vacek came home just 10sec down.
As Pogacar rolled through the red flag banner indicating he had one kilometre to go, it was clear that it was going to be close.
