'I would say I'm stronger' – what does Tadej Pogačar's Tour de Suisse onslaught signal for the Tour de France?
A record-equalling fifth Tour victory seems more of an inevitability than ever
Not since 1959 had the Tour de Suisse seen dominance like it did last week. The organisers had planned for a race, but instead they got an exhibition. On his debut appearance, Tadej Pogačar’s overall victory was crushing: he won by six minutes and 32 seconds, the race’s largest winning margin in 67 years, and in fewer stages – just five compared to the usual eight. Pogačar won three of them.
At times, it seemed effortless for the world champion. On stage one, he charged out of the peloton, like a seal swimming through a shoal of fish, to win with a 71km solo that earned him the race lead and a two-and-a-half-minute advantage.
Victories for Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United) and Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) then interrupted the Pogačar show, before regular programming resumed; he won stage four’s time trial by four hundredths of a second ahead of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), and then tagged and swallowed the escaped Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) on the final day to stamp the GC with a stage win. It was, in ice skating parlance, the final twirl at the end of a gold-medal-winning routine.
But what does it mean for the Tour de France? It’s now less than two weeks until the Grand Départ in Barcelona on 4 July. Pogačar hailed his sojourn in Switzerland as “really good preparation”, a chance to “test the legs, the heart, the lungs, everything”. Though he hasn’t shared the results of that self-assessed cardiogram, everything seems to be in fine working order – perhaps even better than ever. “I’m really looking forward to a whole month in France,” he told Cycling Pro Net with a confident grin.
Still, if the world champion’s on-bike performances weren’t a big enough warning sign for his Tour rivals, then a training tale he told L’Équipe last week certainly was. “On our camp [in Sierra Nevada], there’s a climb that I tested on last year,” he began. “I set a really good time, and I told myself, ‘Wow, I will never be able to go faster than that.’”
Pogačar returned to the unnamed climb at the end of his camp earlier this month. How did he fare? “I was significantly faster than last year,” he said. “From a training perspective, I would say I'm stronger.” It bears reminding that Pogačar won the Tour by four minutes and 24 seconds last year.
Pogačar’s approach to this year’s edition has been more refined. In a bid to arrive at the race fresher than any of his rivals, the Slovenian has done fewer race days than ever before, and to a near-perfect record too – he has collected 13 wins in just 16 starts.
Over the past six editions, he averaged 24 pre-Tour race days. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), by comparison, has already completed 36 in 2026, mostly due to racing, and winning, the Giro d’Italia.
It’s hard to know at this stage which strategy is better. But if a reduced calendar stops Pogačar showing signs of burnout in the final week of the Tour – “I can’t wait for it to be over,” he said after his stage 18 press conference last year – then this winning formula may prove the most potent yet.
So roll on 4 July. Mark the day Pogačar will begin his bid to earn a record-equalling fifth Tour title, one that will bring him in line with Bernard Hinault, Miguel Induráin, Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx.
Pogačar has previously branded comparisons between him and Merckx as “complete nonsense”. Forgive me, then, for drawing another parallel right now: just before Merckx won his fifth Tour de France in 1974, he made his debut at the Tour de Suisse, and topped the overall standings.
History could now repeat itself. And the Tour might see a level of dominance it hasn’t witnessed in decades.
