Pogacar beats Van der Poel in the time trial of the Tour of Switzerland by three tenths

Tadej Pogacar once again demonstrated that he currently has no weak points. The leader of the 2026 Tour de Switzerland won the fourth stage, an individual time trial of 23.7 kilometers held in Aarburg, after surpassing Mathieu van der Poel by just three tenths of a second in one of the closest finishes of the season.

Pogacar wins the time trial of the Tour de Switzerland by three tenths and denies Van der Poel his first victory against the clock

The world champion completed the course in 26:37 minutes, achieving an average speed of over 53 km/h and further strengthening his lead in the general classification. The big surprise of the day was Van der Poel's performance, who was close to achieving the first victory of his professional career in a time trial.

Van der Poel was close to a historic victory

For much of the afternoon, it seemed that the Dutchman was going to pull off a surprise. The first to set a serious benchmark was Tim Wellens. The Belgian from UAE Team Emirates-XRG posted the best provisional time after clearly surpassing previous records and staying in the lead for several minutes.

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However, the situation changed radically with the departure of Mathieu van der Poel. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider already showed his intentions at the only intermediate control point, where he led Wellens by twelve seconds.

In the second half of the course, he maintained the pace and crossed the finish line with a time twelve seconds better than the Belgian's, placing himself at the top of the provisional classification and forcing the other favorites to take risks.

Neither Tobias Foss, the world time trial champion in 2022, nor Mathias Vacek could surpass his time. The Norwegian finished seven seconds behind while the Czech lost eleven.

Pogacar saves the day in the final kilometers and wins with the new Colnago TT2

All attention then turned to the last three riders to start: Mathias Vacek, Richard Carapaz, and Tadej Pogacar.

At the intermediate point, the race leader was already showing that he was willing to fight for the victory. Pogacar was slightly faster than Vacek and kept all his options against Van der Poel's time.

Moreover, the time trial also served to further extend his lead over Richard Carapaz, the second-placed rider in the general classification, whom he even visually caught up with during the course.

The resolution came in the final kilometers. Pogacar, who debuted the new Colnago time trial bike,  maintained a very high speed until the finish and managed to stop the clock at 26:37, exactly one tenth less than Van der Poel's time. The official difference was set at just three tenths of a second.

A cruel ending for the Dutchman, who saw a victory that seemed to be in his hands slip away by a whisker.

UAE places four riders in the Top 10

Beyond Pogacar's victory, the collective performance of UAE Team Emirates-XRG was once again outstanding and points directly to their options of winning the first stage of the Tour, a team time trial.

Tim Wellens finished fifth, 13 seconds behind the winner, Felix Großschartner was seventh at 28 seconds, and Brandon McNulty ninth at 32 seconds.

The Emirati squad clearly dominated a day in which many of the contenders for the general classification lost significant time before the final mountain stage.

Top 10 of stage 4 Tour de Switzerland 2026

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – 26:37
2. Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) – at 1 s
3. Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers) – at 7 s
4. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) – at 11 s
5. Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – at 13 s
6. Sander De Pestel (Decathlon CMA CGM) – at 28 s
7. Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – at 28 s
8. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) – at 30 s
9. Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) – at 32 s
10. Fred Wright (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) – at 37 s

With this victory, Pogacar arrives at the final stage with an even stronger lead in the general classification and the feeling of being a step ahead of all his rivals just weeks before the Tour de France.