The China Mail - Gregoire wins Swiss tour 2nd stage as Pogacar extends lead

It was a bittersweet result for Pogacar, whose girlfriend Urska Zigart was taken to hospital with a broken jaw after a bad crash in the women's race earlier in the day.

Gregoire outsprinted Spaniard Marcel Camprubi and Bart Lemmen of the Netherlands as a six-man group held off a charging Pogacar to come to the line together.

But Pogacar, alongside Mathias Vacek, had escaped from his main rivals on the final climb in the last 10km of the 157km-long hilly stage, which started and finished in Locarno, to snare ever more precious seconds in the yellow jersey battle.

Vacek and Pogacar finished sixth and eighth on the day, just four seconds after Gregoire.

But that was 28 seconds ahead of the other overall contenders, meaning that four-time Tour de France champion Pogacar now leads former Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz of Ecuador by 2:50, with Italian Andrea Bagioli third at 3:07.

Czech Vacek moved up a place to fourth at 4:16.

After a frantic start, a 14-man breakaway eventually got away but they never managed to build up a maximum lead of 2min 45sec.

With two short punchy climbs in the final 17km, Pogacar's Team UAE Emirates decided to push the pace at that point and the breakaway's lead came tumbling down, as the group itself broke up on the steep slopes of the 3.6km-long Fanghi climb.

Slovenian Pogacar led a greatly reduced peloton on the descent before the final 1.4km-long Via Consiglio Mezzano climb, where he cracked all his rivals except Vacek.

As they crested the Via Consiglio Mezzano climb, they were less than 30sec behind the six remaining breakaway leaders.

And although they pushed hard, they came up seconds short of contesting the stage win.

U.Chen--ThChM