Tadej Pogacar and Marlen Reusser secured the Tour de Suisse titles as each won the final stage of their respective races on Sunday.
World champion Pogacar was competing in the men’s race for the first time and led Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz by more than four minutes heading into the fifth and final stage.
The Slovenian battled it out with Lenny Martinez at the end of a brutal 151km mountainous route and caught the French climber 800 metres from the line to claim his third stage win of the week.
“We tried but he was just too strong in the end,” said Martinez. “Tadej wins a lot of races and he keeps wanting to keep winning, so it’s difficult. I knew he wasn’t going to let me win.”
Pogacar, 27, has now won six of the seven most historic week-long stage races having triumphed on his Tour de Romandie bow this year.
He has 13 wins from just 16 race days this year, adding the Milan-San Remo to his palmares in March, and will aim for a record-equalling fifth Tour de France victory next month.
Swiss rider Reusser won the women’s race for the second consecutive year – and third time in four years – by claiming her second straight stage win.
The 34-year-old won Saturday’s individual time trial to gain the overall lead and was 10 seconds ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini going into the 100km mountain stage on day five.
The Italian tested Reusser during the early stages but she broke clear before dropping Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Cedrine Kerbaol in the final 800 metres to clinch victory, while Longo Borghini crossed the line nearly 10 minutes later to finish ninth overall.
