Florian Lipowitz may not have been able to challenge Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de Romandie, but just as the UAE Emirates-XRG rider was, as usual, on a level of his own, so too was the Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe rider who was clearly the best of the rest.

Lipowitz finished the six days of racing by snaring another stage runner-up spot, as while he may have been facing off against the fiercely in-form world champion, he was still quite prepared to throw down the gauntlet through the final kilometres of racing at the 2026 Tour de Romandie.

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No one else could follow.…