{"id":205269,"date":"2026-05-04T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=205269"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:07:12","slug":"pogacar-destroys-tour-de-romandie-field-except-for-lipowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/05\/04\/pogacar-destroys-tour-de-romandie-field-except-for-lipowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Poga\u010dar Destroys Tour de Romandie Field \u2013 Except for Lipowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was never any doubt that Tadej Poga\u010dar would win the Tour de Romandie, which ended on Sunday. The \u00a0only mystery was why he was racing in it. All I can think of is that the organizers must have paid him and his UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG an appearance fee because the race is in danger of being terminated due to a funding crisis after it lost a significant sponsor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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In addition, a new UCI regulation for 2026 has unintentionally hurt the race’s prestige and television value. Under this rule, WorldTour teams can use a “joker” to skip one WorldTour race per season (excluding Grand Tours and Monuments). As a result, four major teams \u2013 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech,<\/a> Lotto Intermarch\u00e9 and Uno-X Mobility \u2013 all chose to skip the race this year, resulting in a reduced peloton of only 15 teams. Because of the sponsor loss, the organizers couldn’t afford to invite more ProTeams to fill the gaps, leading to a “thinner” race that is less attractive to broadcasters.<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s mere presence \u2013 because of his global star appeal and his renown as one of the greatest riders of all time \u2013 must certainly have attracted TV viewers and on-site spectators, because on some of the climbs people packed the roadsides as if it were a Grand Tour. This seemed to me the most likely reason for his being there. But it doesn\u2019t explain why he is also riding in the upcoming Tour de Suisse.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Cannibal\u2019 eats another race<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Perhaps \u00a0Poga\u010dar has reached a stage in his career where he is motivated by winning races he has never won \u2013 or even entered \u2013 before and that his 2026 program specifically included both the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse because these are prestigious week-long WorldTour races currently missing from his trophy cabinet. If that\u2019s true, then it was a perfect marriage of needs between race and rider.<\/p>\n

And the world champion did not disappoint (actually, he never does). He was active throughout, won four of six stages, which included a prologue, and even outsprinted the excellent in-form sprinter Dorian Godon (INEOS Grenadiers) at the end of stage 2. Why did he do that? Because he could.<\/p>\n

But Godon got his own back one day later, when teammates helped bring him back to the peloton after he\u2019d been dropped on a difficult climb on stage 3. He then outsprinted the world champion and everyone else to take his second stage win, after impressively winning the short prologue. He already has six victories this year and INEOS have 19, as they continue their impressive comeback from a couple of lean years.<\/p>\n

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Zobrazit p\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek na Instagramu<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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P\u0159\u00edsp\u011bvek sd\u00edlen\u00fd Tour de Romandie (@tourderomandie)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n