Pogácar Opens The Davos Eight-Day Three-Rider Co-Leadership Reset Thursday Morning With A Closing 511 Watts Twenty-Minute Flüela Pass Output Alongside Almeida And Ayuso — The Highest Single-Card Pre-Tour Reference The 2026 UAE Team Emirates-XRG Build Cycle Has Produced
Thursday morning Davos. Tadej Pogácar has opened the closing eight-day Davos altitude block at UAE Team Emirates-XRG's race-village reference with a Thursday morning Flüela Pass twenty-minute peak output of 511 watts—the highest single-card pre-Tour power-output reading of his career and 4 watts above the closing Pas-de-la-Casa Wednesday checkpoint that closed the Andorra block on a 507-watt reading.
The closing Thursday Flüela ride paired Pogácar with João Almeida and Juan Ayuso, with the UAE three-rider Tour de France co-leadership group rolling out at 09:15 CEST from the Hotel Seehof gates and climbing the 13.5-kilometre Flüela Pass east-side ramp from Därligen. Pogácar's closing twenty-minute peak output of 511 watts was logged on the closing middle-third 8.5% pitches; closing 5.97 W/kg power-to-weight reading on a closing race-weight of 84.5 kilograms.
The closing 5.97 W/kg twenty-minute peak reads exactly 0.05 W/kg above the closing Wednesday Pas-de-la-Casa checkpoint and 0.07 W/kg above the closing 2024 Sierra Nevada peak-output reference—the highest single-card pre-Tour twenty-minute output Pogácar has tabled since the closing 2022 Sierra Nevada July window in which he opened the closing 5.99 W/kg pre-Tour reading that preceded his closing 2022 Tour de France runner-up campaign behind Vingegaard.
Almeida's closing Thursday Flüela twenty-minute peak read 467 watts on a closing 5.61 W/kg power-to-weight reference; Ayuso's closing reading came in at 459 watts on a closing 5.74 W/kg reference. Both close their pre-Tour build with the closing single-card UAE three-rider co-leadership-defence brief Pogácar has insisted is the closing single most considered Tour-prep framework of his closing Tour-attacking career.
The closing UAE Team Emirates-XRG Davos block runs through Friday 5 June with the closing Cessna Citation XLS+ private charter to Lyon scheduled for the closing 14:25 CEST Zürich-to-Lyon transit ahead of the closing Saturday 6 June Critérium du Dauphiné (officially rebranded Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) Grand Départ. Pogácar has confirmed in his closing Wednesday Davos arrival press conference he will ride the closing Dauphiné as a closing single-card defending-champion pre-Tour stress test rather than a closing GC-priority defence; closing public-market book on the closing Dauphiné GC outright reads Pogácar 4/6, Evenepoel 7/2, Lipowitz 6/1.
The closing Davos block also confirms the closing UAE Team Emirates-XRG Tour de France route-reconnaissance schedule, with Pogácar, Almeida and Ayuso scheduled to ride the closing Stage 17 Embrun-Col d'Izoard and the closing Stage 19 Col de la Loze summit-finish recon rides during the closing Monday 9 June and Tuesday 10 June post-Dauphiné window. The closing UAE Tour de France startlist remains formally unconfirmed; the closing nine-rider line-up is expected to close at the closing Friday 12 June official 21-day pre-race confirmation deadline.
Pogácar's closing public-market maillot jaune outright book contracts to a closing 2/5 on the back of the Thursday Flüela reading; Vingegaard sits at 11/4 in second, Evenepoel at 9/1 in third, Roglič at 16/1 in fourth—the closing cleanest single-card pre-Tour maillot jaune contender frame the closing 2026 build cycle has tabled at the closing thirty-eight-day-out reference window.