Tadej returned to the professional peloton in grand style. On the opening day of the Tour de Suisse, he showed his rivals how strong he is, even though he last raced a month and a half ago at the Tour de Romandie.
He won after riding almost half of the 1st stage alone at the front. First, his teammates from UAE Team Emirates – XRG set the pace at the head of the peloton, and then Tadej attacked 71.5 kilometers from the finish of the 144-kilometer test starting and finishing in Sondrio, Italy.
No one could follow Tadej, and on the rolling course he quickly rode more than a minute ahead of his rivals. From the chasing group, Richard Carapaz (EF Education Easy Post) set off in pursuit. However, Tadej, who celebrated his tenth win of the season, was too strong even for the Ecuadorian, who rode to 2nd place, 2:14 behind. Andrea Bagioli (Lidl Trek) also escaped the chasing group and finished in 3rd place, 2:29 back.
»It was very hard. The start was easy, everything was under control, but on the first climb it was already very hard to go uphill. Nils Politt and Tim Wellens set an incredible pace, and then Brandon McNulty and I looked at each other and asked whether we should do something. At that moment I didn’t have a radio, I didn’t know what was happening behind. I went on, I was pushing on the pedals, and when I saw that the gap was already big enough, I found the right rhythm and tried to hold it to the finish. It was very long and hard, and at the same time very technically demanding. That’s why it was nice to be alone. This definitely wasn’t the plan, but somehow we managed thanks to my teammates. Without them—first setting the pace and then also blocking the rivals—it wouldn’t have been possible,« said Tadej.
He wears the yellow jersey with a 2:22 advantage over Carapaz, and after Stage 1 he also leads the sprint and mountain classifications.
He still has four stages to go; on paper the key ones are the 4th, an individual time trial, and the queen 5th, with more than 4,000 meters of elevation gain. But Tadej showed again that you can make a difference every day. What’s the plan for tomorrow’s Stage 2, starting and finishing in Locarno, which will move the race from Italy to Switzerland?
»Stay safe and keep the jersey. We have a strong team; we can also go for a stage win with Jhonatan Narvaez, Brandon McNulty, Felix Grossschartner, or anyone else on the team. We’ll see how the guys feel. We’ll talk about what we’ll do tomorrow,« Tadej added, after celebrating the 118th win of his career.