Results Tour de Suisse 2026 Stage 2 - Romain Grégoire survives late Pogacar attacks as breakaway battle for victory

It was another thrilling day of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday as the breakaway survived a late Tadej Pogacar attack to battle for stage victory. Romain Grégoire opened up the sprint as six riders desperately tried to fend off the fast-approaching Slovenian, with the Groupama - FDJ United man raising his arms.

Stage two saw the peloton take in 157.7 kilometers, starting and finishing in Locarno. After Tadej Pogacar's dominance of the opening stage, and with a less hilly parcours, the others may sense an opportunity to upset the yellow jersey.

Two category three tests are served up in the stage finale. The first is a 3.5-kilometer warm-up ascent to Fanghi at a seven percent average gradient. Topping at 14 kilometers to go, it's quickly followed by a steeper rise to Orselina - a sharper 8.9 percent gradient for 1.4 kilometers.

It took quite a while for the day's breakaway to go before 14 riders established themselves at the front with around 120 kilometers to go. Multiple teams were represented with high-profile riders such as Romain Grégoire, Afonso Eulalio, Bauke Mollema, Filippo Zana and Julian Alaphilippe at the front of affairs.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG soon took to the front and controlled the gap, with it standing at 1:40 with around 90 kilometers to go. With a strong caliber of riders, they were able to extend that gap as high as three minutes at its peak.

The riders out front gave themselves a fighting chance, boasting a solid 2:30 with 25 kilometers and a double helping of climbing remaining to the finish. EF Education-EasyPost also began helping out UAE in the peloton, sensing an opportunity to consolidate their podium ambitions for leader Richard Carapaz.

In fact, Carapaz himself drove the pace at the base of the first climb before UAE took over with Brandon McNulty, causing the break's advantage tumble down to 1:30 with 15 kilometers to go.

The race would soon open up as race leader Tadej Pogacar turned teammate, moving to the front in the remaining bunch, turning into a teammate to set a brutal pace for teammate Jhonatan Narvaez.In the break, Eulalio kicked off hostilities as the Bahrain-Victorious youngster attacked the breakaway group, and they traded blows. Chaos ensued as Narvaez attacked with Pogacar on his wheel before the Slovenian continued past him with only Matthias Vacek alongside him.

The pair caught a retreating Eulalio with just six riders from the early break just six riders ahead heading to the finish. Emiel Verstrynge, Romain Grégoire, Filippo Zana, Finlay Pickering, Bart Lemmen and Marcel Camprubi found themselves with a 0:20 gap on the Pogacar group and the chance of a stage win was very much in play with three kilometers to go.

However, as Pogacar and Vacek came quickly from behind, the breakaway just held up as Gregoire proved to be the strongest - surging ahead of Camprubi in second and Lemmen third. Pogacar can be seen just around 30 meters behind as Grégoire crossed the line.