April 30, 2026
If you were to close your eyes and envision a typical Romandie stage, you may think of hilly but not mountainous terrain, rolling green hills full of Spring vitality, and little villages between expanses of cultivated farmland. That's what's on offer today for the second stage from Rue to Vucherens. There is hardly a meter of flat road and by the end, the riders will have accumulated over 2,700 meters of elevation gain. The race is primarily made up of three large 46 km laps. The first point of interest after the finish line is a 1.5 km ramp at 6% but the road actually rises for about 4 km. There is a sprint in Chapelle-sur-Moudon then a fast descent down to the Broyle River in Moudon where the riders will face a 3 km, 5.5% climb to Vulliens. The top comes just 2.5 km from the finish and would have had Peter Sagan's name written all over it in the past. With no dominant puncheur in the race, we could see the GC guys go on the attack on the last time up Vulliens.
Race Summary
The weather was incredible at the start with temperatures hovering around 18C (65F) and only a wisp of high cloud to block a few sun rays. When the race got underway, four riders broke free including Filippo Conca of Jayco AlUla, Roland Thalmann of Tudor Pro Cycling, Jakob Söderqvist of Lidl-Trek, and Henri-François Renard-Haquin of Picnic-PostNL. With 83 km remaining, the leaders had 1 minute 55 seconds with Ineos and UAE-XRG pulling in the chasing peloton.
The gap was trimmed to 1 minute 35 seconds as Renard-Haquin led the break through the sprint in Chapelle-sur-Moudon and passed the patch work of perfectly manicured fields of green wheat and yellow rapeseed. Thalmann did the majority of the work to and on the climb with hopes of being paid back with maximum mountains points at the top. Thalmann did in fact gather the points but when they reached the finish line a few kilometers later, the gap was down to 1 minute 12 seconds as Ineos decided to increase the effort coming into the final lap.
The pace of Ineos started to shed riders out the back of the peloton. Cars were pulled from behind the break away as the bunch had closed to just 35 seconds with 40 km to go. Conca, Thalmann, Söderqvist, and Renard-Haquin put up a good fight and were able to hold their advantage of around 45 seconds all the way to the back half of the circuit with 22 km to go. The cow bells were ringing along the side of the road when the leaders reached the final sprint with 17 km to go. Their advantage was down to 20 seconds however because the peloton was wide across the road in drag racing formation to position for the downhill into Moudon.
Through Moudon, before the full ascent of Vulliens, the road tipped up for a few hundred meters and Söderqvist went clear from his break away companions. Söderqvist had extended the gap back to the peloton to 33 seconds with 8 km remaining but UAE-XRG had taken up the chase and looked intent on closing things down to set up for the climb to Vulliens.
It was Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe that took charge on the climb and they stretched the group into single file with all the favorites right at the front. With 4 km to go, the strength of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe faded and the pace went out. Jefferson Cepeda of Movistar took his momentum and attacked the group. Race leader, Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG, went straight onto his wheel and Cepeda decided to shut his effort down just as Söderqvist was caught. Pogačar looked comfortable but there was no one in the group willing to set a pace so Pogačar was forced to ride on the front. Everyone was looking around and the group swelled to least 35 riders. Movistar had numbers and made a few accelerations but Pogačar marked each move out by himself. Yannis Voisard of Tudor Pro Cycling was the next to try his hand but Pogačar was ever-attentive and closed it down as they crested the climb.
The group was still reasonably large at around 30 riders when they turned into the finish straight with 1 km to go. There were so few teammates available set a pace that it became a free-for-all with attacks going left and right. Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe took a flyer but he didn't get a gap. He continued his effort and acted as a lead out to keep the speed up into the last few hundred meters. The sprint opened up with 225 meters to go when Dorian Godon of Ineos came out of the slip stream from fourth position. He was quickly in the lead with Pogačar, Cepeda, and Finn Fisher-Black of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe all sprinting behind him. Godon moved to the center of the road from the right side which opened the door on his right. Pogačar went through the opening with a high cadence sprint and came passed Godon on the line to take his second win in as many days. Godon shook his head in frustration as he came through for second with Fisher-Black behind in third place.