Romain Grégoire showcased his exceptional descending skills on the wet descent from the Michaelskreuzstrasse climb to win Stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse.
The Frenchman broke away from a splintered breakaway and managed to hold off the chasing trio of Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Bart Lemmen (Visma–Lease a Bike), and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) to secure a standout victory.
Crossing the line 20 seconds later, Vauquelin claimed second in a three-up sprint ahead of Lemmen who was third. Alaphilippe finished fourth.
“It's always something really special to win at the WorldTour level so I'm really, really happy,” said Grégoire (22) who claimed his first WorldTour victory last year at the Itzulia Basque Country.
“I think we were at the same level with Kevin, Bart and Julian, but I made a difference in the technical part.”
The quarter was part of a 29-rider breakaway which escaped with 86km to go, after non-stop attacking peppered the front of the peloton as they tackled a hilly loop. The move also included GC contender Ben O’Connor and two Jayco-AlUla teammates, who did the majority of the work to stretch the gap to over the three-minute mark.
O’Connor took over the pacemaking at the front on the final climb but was soon swamped by the quartet battling for the stage honours. The Australian led the second chase group to take fifth place, 1:07 down.
Grégoire takes the first leader’s jersey with a 24-second lead on Vauquelin, 26 seconds on Lemmen.
O’Connor sits in fifth overall, at 1:17 down, while the rest of the pre-race favourites, including João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) are 3:22 down.
How it unfolded
Instead of starting with the usual prologue, the Tour de Suisse with a 127.2 km Stage 1 around Küssnacht, where the men took on the same route as the final stage of the Tour de Suisse Women.
Stage 1 featured two distinct loops: one flat and one hilly, incorporating the climbs of Adligenwilerstrasse and Michaelskreuzstrasse. The peloton first tackled the challenging hilly circuit, followed by the flatter loop running along Lakes Zug, Lauerz, and Luzern. A final return to the hilly loop, with the steep Michaelskreuzstrasse climb just 15 km from the finish, set the stage for a dynamic and decisive finale.
Attacks flew from the start of the relatively short stage, with splits appearing in the peloton early on the Adligenswilerstrasse climb with Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) cresting first to take the first KOM points of the day ahead of Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Tom Gloag (Visma-Lease a Bike).
A solo crash took down Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) as the peloton reformed. The 22-year-old Swiss rider was able to rejoin and was seen later on getting some assistance at his team car.
Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) launched an attack on the approach to the Michaelskreuzstrasse climb, opening up a gap of roughly 22 seconds on a large chase group, as splits continued to pepper the peloton.
A 27-rider chase group formed and had the two escapees within sight, just 10 seconds ahead as they crossed the finish line to begin the flatter loop.
The 29-rider breakaway included Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Sam Maisonobe (Cofidis), Benoît Cosnefroy (Decathlon AG2r La Mondiale), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Warren Barguil (Picnic-PostNL), and Alaphilippe.
Also in the move were teammates Ewen Costiou, Mathis Le Berre and Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels); Matej Mohorič and Rainer Kepplinger (Bahrain Victorious); Lennard Kämna and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek); Castrillo and William Barta (Movistar); Luke Durbridge, Engelhardt and Ben O´Connor (Jayco-AlUla); Tijmen Graat and Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike); Nicola Conci and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana); Georg Zimmermann and Simone Petilli (Intermarché Wanty); George Bennett and Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech); and Matteo Badilatti and Sjoerd Bax (Q36.5).
With dark clouds looming overhead, the peloton led by UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Ineos Grenadiers, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Soudal-QuickStep, and Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, worked hard to keep the break, which included GC danger men O’Connor, Grégoire, and Castrillo, on a tight leash.
In the break, O’Connor’s teammates put in massive pulls to stretch the gap as much as possible, hitting a maximum of 3:40 with 56km to go.
The storm rolled in with torrential rain, darkening skies, and flashes of lightning in the distance, as the breakaway pressed on with 46 km to go. A few riders, including Fortunato and U.S.A. champion Simmons, went down on the wet roads but quickly jumped to chase back into the lead group.
As they crossed the finish line once more to start the hilly loop for the second time, the gap was 3:25 inside of 40km remaining.
In the fight for bonus seconds in the Tissot kilometre sprints, Swift claimed the first sprint ahead of Alaphilippe and Castrillo, while Simmons took the second ahead of Alaphilippe and Swift. As a result, both Alaphilippe and Swift earned four-second time bonuses, Simmons picked up three seconds, and Castrillo nabbed one.
The gap fell to under the three-minute mark, as the break took on the ascent of Adligenswilerstrasse for the second time, with Engelhardt taking top KOM ahead of Mohorič and O’Connor.
Mohorič was the first to fall off the Jayco-driven pace in the break on the Michaelskreuzstrasse climb, followed by Le Berre, Kepplinger, and Simmons as the gap hovered around 2:45..
Riders continued to fall off as O’Connor took over the pacemaking, trying to make it as difficult as possible for his breakaway companions with 16km to go. But the Australian is swamped before the top of the climb with Lemmen launching a move, quickly covered by Vauquelin, Grégoire and Alaphilippe.
Grégoire pushed on, opening up a small advantage on the wet descent, getting seven seconds to Vauquelin, Lemmen and Alaphilippe, and 25 seconds to a second four-rider chase group with 9km to go.
Going all in as the rain continued to pour, Grégoire stretched the gap out to 13 seconds with 2km to go, a gap he was able to build on to take the win.
Results
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