Tadej Pogacar warmed up for the Tour de France with another crushing victory, this time in the Tour de Suisse -- and he did it in the most flamboyant style by winning the fifth and final stage.
The 27-year-old Slovenian is in ominous form heading into the July 4-26 Tour, where he'll try to win the showcase race for a record-equalling fifth time.
He had won the opening stage of the Swiss tour, secured a one-second victory over rival Mathieu van der Poel in the time trial on Saturday and won Sunday's concluding stage in typically dazzling fashion, prevailing overall by more than six-and-a-half minutes over runner-up Richard Carapaz.
Pogacar caught Frenchman Lenny Martinez about 800 metres from the end of the final climb of the 151.1km trek to Villars-sur-Ollon and burst away to win the stage by seven seconds.
"It was a super hard day," Pogacar said. "The parcours was really tough, and with the team we did a super good job."
Pogacar secured a dominant win at the six-day Tour de Romandie last month, after stellar performances in the one-day classics. In April, he clinched a third straight victory at Liege–Bastogne–Liege.
Pogacar also won Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders — winning that race for a third time — and was narrowly beaten at Paris-Roubaix by Wout van Aert.
