LEYSIN, Switzerland (AP) — Cycling superstar Tadej Pogačar showed Sunday he will be just as hard to beat in stage races as one-day classics this season.
Pogačar rode to overall victory in the six-day Tour de Romandie with his fourth stage win of the race, proving too strong for potential Tour de France rival Florian Lipowitz on the rising roads into ski station Leysin.
The Slovenian star had come to Switzerland this week after winning Liège–Bastogne–Liège last Sunday, which was his third title in four coveted one-day classics in the European spring known as the Monuments. Pogačar won Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and in Liège, and was second in the other one-day race with Monument status, edged for the Paris-Roubaix win by Wout van Aert.
Pogačar was attacked repeatedly Sunday by Lipowitz, who was third when the Slovenian rider won his fourth Tour de France title last year, in a duel through the final three kilometers (two miles).
Pogačar eased clear of Lipowitz in the closing stages to add three seconds on to a winning margin of 42 seconds overall. In third place overall, Lenny Martinez of France was 2 minutes, 44 seconds back.
It was the 27-year-old Pogačar’s first start at the Romandie race through the French-speaking region of Switzerland that is an early-season trial for the Tour de France. The double was done in three straight years from 2011-13 by Cadel Evans, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.
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