"Pogi is on another level, but..." - Mathias Vacek's heavyweight build not enough to stop Tour de Suisse podium in the high mountains

Mathias Vacek has reached his best form, just in time for the Tour de France. The Lidl-Trek has virtually secured his presence through a performance at the Tour de Suisse that saw him finish on the final podium, despite weighting 75Kg and ending in a brutal mountain stage.

“If somebody would have told me that I would be fighting with the climbers here, I would not have believed it," Vacek shared in a press release. Vacek has reached the end of the race in third place, joining Tadej Pogacar and Richard Carapz on the final podium of the race.

The Czech rider has shown tremendous amounts of quality over the past couple of years, however his talent has been shown more in the classics and time trials. But like few before him, he is a true all-rounder, specializing in that terrain, but holding his own very well in the mountains.

On stage 1 he was one of the strongest on the hilly terrain but few would've expected that on stage 2, he would be the only one able to follow Tadej Pogacar on the final sequence of ascents. Vacek showed his true level there, and gained time on his direct rivals in the fight for the overall classification.

In the race's time trial his performance wasn't as sharp as some would've hoped for, but he climbed onto the race's podium. Against many climbers, on stage 5 he remained there. Although he lost 2:16 minutes to Pogacar on Villars-sur-Ollon, he lost only a mere 23 seconds to the 'best of the rest' Jarno Widar who led the rest of the peloton figures in.

"Okay, Pogi is on another level, but Carapaz and these guys are proper mountain goats. So it’s amazing". Vacek has effectively net one of the best results of his career, in a race where at the start he did not feature amongst the expected GC contenders.

He was planned to race the Tour de France, often termed Mads Pedersen's right-hand man, however with his current form there would be no logic in leaving him home. After Quinn Simmons' victory at the USA national championships this weekend, the team can count on two of its brightest all-rounders to support the other leaders and also chase stage wins.

“I’m so happy that I could do it. It’s one of the biggest successes of my career and I couldn’t be happier with my own performance and with the team support and everything. Really, really good," he assures.

He has shown his best form just at the right time this year, and next weekend at the national championships he should be the undeniable favourite in his home nation. “I did another step in my performance and all the work paid off. That’s great. I am super happy and looking forward to the next races," he concluded.