Mathieu van der Poel Narrowly Loses Swiss Tour TT to Pogacar

Mathieu van der Poel was beaten by a mere three tenths of a second by Tadej Pogacar in the Swiss Tour TT on June 20.

The Dutch rider had been in the lead for around an hour, watching as the final 50 riders came to the finish.

Pogacar, the world champion, gave it his all over the 23.7km route around Aarburg, drilling his effort right to the line.

This proved enough to deny Van der Poel a morale-boosting victory.

Van der Poel had been sitting in the leader's chair, looking confident, but it was not until the last half a dozen or so riders that his time came under threat.

First, Norwegian Tobias Foss finished six seconds slower, and then Mathias Vacek came home just 10sec down.

The stage five route on June 21 starts at Villars-sur-Ollon and sees the peloton climb the Col de la Croix twice in full and twice partially over the 150.7-kilometre route.

Pogacar now has 11 wins this season in just 15 race days, and is the overwhelming favourite for the finale in the high mountains.

Pogacar gained more than a minute and a half on his nearest challenger, former Giro d'Italia winner Richard Carapaz, to extend his lead to 4min 22sec.

Czech Mathias Vacek moved up a place to third overall with an impressive fourth-placed finish on the day.

Van der Poel was left looking stunned, even managing a wry smile, as Pogacar rolled through the red flag banner indicating he had one kilometre to go.

It was clear that it was going to be close, but in true Pogacar style, the 27-year-old Slovenian gave it everything.

The young Italian Andrea Bagioli dropped a place in the overall standings to fourth at 4:46 after finishing 43rd in the race against the clock.

Pogacar was happy with the win, saying "I felt great, I didn't know I was fighting for the win, I knew it was close".