Jakob Söderqvist in second and Albert Withen Philipsen in seventh place: Lidl – Trek started strongly into the Tour de Romandie.
At first, he was disappointed, but later he was able to smile on the podium as he pulled on the white jersey as the best young rider of the Tour de Romandie:
Jakob Söderqvist missed victory in the 3.2-kilometre prologue in Villars-sur-Glâne by 6.12 seconds and smashed his handlebars when he heard the result at the finish.
The Swedish time trial champion came to Switzerland to fight for victory and the yellow jersey on the opening day. He prepared perfectly, rode multiple reconnaissance laps, and gave it his all in the race. To then come second behind Dorian Godon understandably hurt for a moment.
“I hope he will realize that it was a good performance. But it is also nice to see an athlete disappointed — that means he is hungry and eager for more,” sports director Michael Schär said after the race. Later in the evening, after reflecting while on the massage table, Söderqvist himself was also able to feel some satisfaction:
“It was a fun day overall. I really like to practice these prologues and think about how to carry momentum throughout the course and make the most of my capabilities,” he said. “Overall, I just couldn’t match the best rider today. I was best of the rest and will take that with me.”
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Söderqvist went on to analyse: “I think I had good reference points from doing laps beforehand, and in the end there were no major mistakes — maybe one corner where I actually wanted to stay in position. But this is just fractions of a second. I really emptied myself to the line, so no big regrets.”
Almost as fast as the Under-23 Time Trial World Champion of 2025 was his Danish teammate Albert Withen Philipsen. The 19-year-old missed Söderqvist’s time by just 1.41 seconds and took seventh place in the short time trial, which featured a flat first kilometre, followed by a downhill section and a tough climbing final kilometre.
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“Jakob had a really good performance, technically perfect — and Albert was also really impressive on the climb. So this is promising for the next days,” Schär summarized the day, and Söderqvist looked ahead:
“Albert is going really well, and I’m also not in a bad place. Even if the overall course of this race is quite tough for a rider like me, I’m looking forward to the week and hoping to deliver a really solid performance here.”
The Tour de Romandie continues with a very hard stage on Wednesday around Martigny, including a nine-kilometre climb up to Ovronnaz that averages 9.7 percent, 34 kilometres before the finish. Stage 2 on Thursday is then more hilly.
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