You thought you knew Tadej Pogačar, huh. You thought he’d be on the attack in the opening stages of the Tour de France, keen to take time on the Classics-like terrain. You expected him to attack on the third-last climb on stage two, 10km from the finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
But this is a different Pogačar. Patient, more reserved, less eager. Playing a longer game. He’s still gaining time – 39 seconds over Remco Evenepoel on stage one, and two extra bonus seconds over Jonas Vingegaard on stage two after he finished second behind winner Mathieu van der Poel – but UAE Team Emirates-XRG are preaching a game of perseverance and caution.
In the final kilometres of the second stage, it was Vingegaard and Evenepoel who went on the attack, with Pogačar happy to sit in the wheels and follow.
Such tactics are unlike Pogačar – he was into pink on stage two of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, and into yellow after stage four of last year’s Tour – but this is his approach this time around.
“The plan was to create a smaller selection of riders and if we could fight for the stage, well we’d fight for the stage, but it wasn’t the idea in the second stage to attack 80km before the finish line,” UAE’s sports manager Matxin Fernández told Cycling Weekly afterwards.
“Those stages come later on, not in the second stage. We have to be prudent, we have to respect our rivals, and we know that there are big rivals and the direct rival is Vingegaard who has won two Tours de France.”
Referencing the strong wind and heavy rain that has plagued the Grand Départ in the north of France and is set to continue on stage three, Fernández continued: “The risk continues, the danger continues, and we have to continue with the same idea of not taking many risks. It’s too soon to take on the responsibility of trying to protect Tadej [in yellow].”
This is not to say that Pogačar is not looking to get into the maillot jaune as soon as possible, it’s more that he’s not going to go on the offensive as he has previously done until the arrival of the big mountains.
“The objective is to get through these days, get to the time trial [on stage five], do a good time trial, and then get through the days until the Massif Central [on stage 10] at the end of the first week to then be able to fight.”
Torrential rain in particular concerns Fernández. “Today was a wet, complicated and really dangerous stage,” he said. “There are roundabouts, traffic islands, and you can fall anywhere. The plan is simply to defend Tadej’s position.
“I continue to be worried. A lot of stages remain and tomorrow is another complicated stage. We’re going to continue to be on our guard and be focused to keep our positions.”
Pogačar, who moved into the lead of the King of the Mountains classification after stage two, expressed his own worries about the weather conditions, but acknowledged that a top-three of Van der Poel, himself and Vingegaard was “really amazing” for the spectators.
“It had everything: rain, stress, hectic, danger, short climbs, just like a Classics stage. I was feeling good in the end, the team rode really well, but Mathieu was stronger at the finish line so chapeau to him. In the end I was super happy to take second.”
João Almeida, one of Pogačar’s super-domestiques in the mountains, claimed that the amount of people on Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, the third-last climb, negatively impacted the race.
“It was super hectic and with two climbs still to go I lost position because it was super chaotic and it was just impossible to pass because the road was full of people and riders,” the Portuguese said.
“Towards the end [of the climb] there were barriers but at the beginning there was nothing. If you wanted to pass it was impossible, and it actually blocked the race. I think we could have made the race even harder but it is what it is.
“We just wanted to control the race and try to go for the stage win. Of course it was quite windy also so it was impossible to go solo on these roads.”
