Pogacar takes fifth stage victory, wins Tour de Romandie on debut

On the final day of racing in Switzerland, Tadej Pogacar won stage 5 at the Tour de Romandie and sealed the overall title. Winning the general classification on debut, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG man ends the race with a remarkable tally of four stage victories.

In claiming the yellow jersey on Sunday afternoon, the world champion has now added the fifth of cycling’s big seven’ week-long stage races to his palmarès. All that remains for Pogacar to take are Itzulia Basque Country and the Tour de Suisse.

It was in a two-up sprint at the summit of Leysin (14.3km at 5.9%) that Pogacar crossed the line to take another victory in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, pipping Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) to the finish. On his way to the overall title, Pogacar has won stages 1, 2, 4 and 5 this week.

With victories in the stage and the general classification on Sunday, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider has moved to 117 career wins, with the Emirati squad sitting on 27 victories in 2026.

Heading into stage 5 with a 35-second lead on Lipowitz in the general classification, Pogacar knew that he would have to remain consistent on the only summit finish of the week. An eight-man breakaway went clear early in the day, but Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, along with the help of Bahrain Victorious, kept the group on a tight leash.

At the foot of the final climb, Domen Novak paced the peloton for UAE Team Emirates-XRG, with the breakaway just a minute up the road. The pack ultimately swallowed the group, as both Antonio Tiberi and Damiano Caruso came to the front for Bahrain Victorious. The Italian pair were looking to set up an attack from the third-placed Lenny Martinez.

However, with 3.7km of the day to go, no attack had come, and it was Pogacar’s teammate Felix Grobschartner who took up the pace-setting duties. The Austrian’s presence drew attention from Pogacar’s rivals, and some 400m later, both Lipowitz and Jordan Nordhagen (Visma-Lease a Bike) traded attacks off the front of the group.

Responding to these moves with relative ease, Pogacar bridged up to Lipowitz and with 2.9km to go, the Slovenian made his own acceleration at the front. To this attack, the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider was able to follow the wheel, and the pair were soon in sight of the finish.

Despite Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) coming close to their back wheels, Lipowitz and Pogacar contested the day’s honours in a sprint to the line.

Lipowitz began his acceleration some 500m from the top, but it was Pogacar who snapped the elastic with 300m to go.

As the German was distanced, the world champion and yellow jersey wearer could sit up and celebrate his fourth stage success of the week. It was the perfect way to seal the overall title for Pogacar, who claimed the Tour de Romandie on debut.

Pogacar: “It was a tough day, Bahrain came to help us, they wanted to go for the stage as well, and fight for the GC. It was good for us, a hard pace all day and then on the climb, Florian attacked first and he did a really good job, but luckily I could survive on his wheel and he launched really early, and then it was a fight to the finish line.

“I knew I needed to go all out to the finish line, but actually, when I attacked and then Florian counter-attacked, it was really impressive.

“It was a pain in the legs, I must admit. Then we worked a little bit together, I didn’t want to work too much in the final because I knew I needed to have a good kick in the end.

“Florian started his sprint; it felt like 600m to the finish line, and I just committed and passed. I had to commit to the finish line, but it was really long.

“It is a WorldTour stage race, it is what suits me, and I have always admired this race since I was young, seeing Primož [Roglič] win many times. It was always beautiful to see it on the TV, so I wanted to come here to race, to experience it, and to win.

Agencies