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 direction of his Crimson Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe crew workers, unclipped and stood for a second, staring into house as he caught his breath within the baking streets. He then unzipped his jersey, wrapped an ice sock round his neck and was rapidly ushered away from a scrum of journalists earlier than heading again to the sanctuary of the crew’s air-conditioned bus.
The temperatures soared in Emilia Romagna because the peloton surged into the ultimate lap of the interior 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 constructive.
“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 does not imply something.”
Coming into the race, query marks hung over Vingegaard’s post-injury kind 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 sincere,” Geraint Thomas stated when requested for his tackle Vingegaard’s kind. “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 Photos)
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 already know, 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 type of different guys. The three-time Vuelta a España winner misplaced the identical period of time, however didn’t reappear after coming into the Crimson Bull crew bus. Roglič’s teammate, Jai Hindley, cooled down outdoors and informed a gaggle of gathered media that the warmth had made a big affect on proceedings.
“It was simply full fuel cooking on the market all day. It was actually on and off on the climbs so it was a reasonably unusual day. Full fuel 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 every little thing. We’re 48 hours into a 3 week race. There’s loads of racing to return. It’s not been too dangerous. It wasn’t a catastrophe day.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
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 by means of as soon as solely so I feel it was due to 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 fellows 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 initially of a race I want to search out my explosivity and I feel that’s what got here out as we speak,” 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 as we speak’s effort, however it wasn’t my finest day on the bike.
“I did not lose any time to the 2 massive favourites in order that’s the constructive factor about as we speak.”
