It was sweltering in Bologna because the Tour de France peloton crossed the end line and have been met by soigneurs with chilly drinks, ice vests and towels to wipe sweat from their forehead after an explosive finale to stage two which noticed Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard ignite the race on the slopes of San Luca.
Primož Roglič rolled in the direction of his Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe staff employees, unclipped and stood for a second, staring into area as he caught his breath within the baking streets. He then unzipped his jersey, wrapped an ice sock round his neck and was shortly ushered away from a scrum of journalists earlier than heading again to the sanctuary of the staff’s air-conditioned bus.
The temperatures soared in Emilia Romagna because the peloton surged into the ultimate lap of the inside Bologna circuit to sort out the San Luca one remaining time. What occurred subsequent performed out as many predicted; Tadej Pogačar launched a sometimes explosive assault, with Jonas Vingegaard leaping straight onto his wheel.
After a quick pause, solely Remco Evenepoel may comply with, with the likes of Roglič and Ineos Grenadiers protected riders dropping seconds within the melee. Pogačar now leads the race, with Evenepoel and Vingegaard tied on time with the Slovenian.
Egan Bernal and Tom Pidcock each sit seventh and ninth on GC respectively, 21 seconds again. Talking post-race, Pidcock remained optimistic.
“It isn’t precisely what we’d hoped,” he stated. “But it surely was injury limitation in the long run. There’s going to be minutes in three weeks. Twenty-one seconds doesn’t suggest something.”
Coming into the race, query marks hung over Vingegaard’s post-injury type after his brutal spring crash within the Basque Nation. The Danish rider put any doubts concerning his bodily form to mattress, immediately responding to the Slovenian when the battle kicked off.
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“I used to be not overly shocked, to be trustworthy,” Geraint Thomas stated when requested for his tackle Vingegaard’s type. “We knew he can be good. I anticipated Tadej to get a niche, so if he didn’t then honest play, hats off to Jonas.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Ineos DS Zak Dempster shared Pidcock’s positivity in his evaluation of the day, suggesting that the hole at this stage shouldn’t be given a lot consideration.
He stated: “We could not reply. However I feel, you recognize, 21 seconds at this stage isn’t too dangerous. We’re going to be speaking about minutes within the third week…There have been a bunch of different guys there that weren’t in a position to maintain the wheel both.”
Primož Roglič was a kind of different guys. The three-time Vuelta a España winner misplaced the identical period of time, however didn’t reappear after coming into the Purple Bull staff bus. Roglič’s teammate, Jai Hindley, cooled down outdoors and advised a gaggle of gathered media that the warmth had made a big impression on proceedings.
“It was simply full gasoline cooking on the market all day. It was actually on and off on the climbs so it was a fairly unusual day. Full gasoline principally each instances up San Luca. It was actually on the restrict.
“We restricted our losses as finest as we may and actually gave it all the things. We’re 48 hours into a 3 week race. There’s loads of racing to come back. It’s not been too dangerous. It wasn’t a catastrophe day.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Remco Evenepoel’s effort to bridge throughout to Vingegaard and Pogačar earned him the white jersey for his troubles.
“I needed to do a lot of the work alone,” Evenepoel defined within the blended zone afterwards. “I feel Richard [Carapaz] got here via as soon as solely so I feel it was because of me that we got here again. However in the long run, I feel Tadej’s assault was fairly explosive, fairly spectacular.
“In the long run I feel it is good that I got here again to the blokes and completed with them and the others arrived 20 seconds behind. It’s higher to be in entrance than behind.”
“I feel at all times in the beginning of a race I would like to search out my explosivity and I feel that’s what got here out immediately,” he added. “The legs have been good, however not tremendous, like I stated earlier than, I am nonetheless in search of my finest form and can attempt to go to 100-105%. I’m proud of immediately’s effort, however it wasn’t my finest day on the bike.
“I did not lose any time to the 2 huge favourites in order that’s the optimistic factor about immediately.”
