Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was not able to get away from Jonas Vingegaard with his expected attack on the San Luca climb during stage 2 of the Tour de France and was also later caught by Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), but that only made it more disappointing for the bunch of riders who shed time.
They were not blown away by Pogačar but it was the start of the slow drip loss of precious seconds. The very top of the GC standings is already starting to become clear after two days of racing and it will be hard to pull back the time lost on Sunday over the top of San Luca and on the fast descent to the centre of Bologna.
Pogačar and Evenepoel quickly headed to the podium to collect the yellow and white jersey, while Vingegaard dashed to the safety of his Visma-Lease A Bike bus to avoid the dangers of the huge crowds that are allowed to wander around the area as riders come in. Pogačar again leads the Tour de France but Evenepoel, Vingegaard and Carapaz are all on the same time as him, their GC positions decided by their stage results across the opening weekend.
Other riders came in behind them, took a drink from their soigneur and disappointedly headed to their buses, fatigued by the 199.2km of hard racing in the heat and mulling over the consequences of seconds lost.
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the only one of the ‘Big 4’ GC contenders to lose time, finishing in a group of GC hopefuls 21 seconds down on Pogačar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Carapaz. He mumbled a few words of disappointment in Slovenian before heading to his team bus to reflect on what it meant.
Jai Hindley finished with his new teammate Roglič, as did Aleksandr Vlasov, but neither were able to reduce the gap below 21 seconds. In Roglič’s absence, it was up to Hindley to explain Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s day
"I think Roglič was still quite good," said Hindley. "Obviously, conditions are really challenging. I'm happy me and Aleksandr Vlasov were there to help him at the finish.”
"It's still quite early to say what will happen. Everyone's fighting for the race with UAE again but we're only two days in. There hasn't been so much racing yet but I think it's been pretty exciting.”
Counting on consistency
Stage 1 winner Romain Bardet (dsm firmenich-PostNL) was saying goodbye to more than seconds. The rider was sad and emotional in Bologna as he realised his spell in the yellow jersey was over after just 24 hours. He is now fifth at six seconds back.
The Ineos Grenadiers trio of Tom Pidcock, Carlos Rodriguez and Egan Bernal all finished in the GC chase group and remain in the overall battle, without understanding who will eventually be the team leader and who the loyal domestiques. Geraint Thomas (G) already looks to be out of the picture after he was dropped early on the final climb of San Luca and lost 6:45.
“Not exactly how we hoped, but it was damage limitation in the end,” Pidcock said.
“There's going to be minutes in three weeks time, 21 seconds doesn't mean anything. I mean, I wanted to be there in the front, but it wasn't an ideal run up to the Tour. At least I could be there a bit at the end for them and so it's alright.”
Ineos Grenadiers directeur sportif Zak Dempster, naturally, tried to see it as glass half full.
“I think 21 seconds at this stage isn't too bad. Obviously we would have hoped to have someone up there, but at the same time, I think they managed it decently,” he said.
“If you're talking about Carlos and Egan, our protected GC guys, an explosive climb like that is tough. We know what Pogačar is capable of in Flanders and Vingegaard’s a beast too, on the explosivity.
Ultimately, Dempster said that while that amount of time could be a big deal in some circumstances, you couldn't read too much into it.
"The main thing is consistency. The consistency is what counts in the end," said Dempster. "Obviously you need to take advantage of the big moments, but for us as a team I think we just have to take confidence and get back at it day to day.
"G didn't have a great day. But we just wanted to see where he was at, and he wasn't a protected GC leader, so nothing changes for us. There's plenty of guys still close on GC. Chaos could ensue and you never know what will happen.”
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