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 group employees, 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 shortly ushered away from a scrum of journalists earlier than heading again to the sanctuary of the group’s air-conditioned bus.
The temperatures soared in Emilia Romagna because the peloton surged into the ultimate lap of the internal Bologna circuit to deal with the San Luca one last 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 might comply with, with the likes of Roglič and Ineos Grenadiers protected riders shedding 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 mentioned. “Nevertheless it was injury limitation ultimately. 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 relating to 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 mentioned when requested for his tackle Vingegaard’s type. “We knew he can be good. I anticipated Tadej to get a spot, so if he didn’t then truthful play, hats off to Jonas.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
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 mentioned: “We could not reply. However I believe, , 21 seconds at this stage isn’t too unhealthy. We’re going to be speaking about minutes within the third week…There have been a bunch of different guys there that weren’t capable of 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 getting into the Purple Bull group bus. Roglič’s teammate, Jai Hindley, cooled down outdoors and informed a gaggle of gathered media that the warmth had made a big influence 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 reasonably unusual day. Full gasoline mainly each instances up San Luca. It was actually on the restrict.
“We restricted our losses as finest as we might and actually gave it all the things. We’re 48 hours into a 3 week race. There’s loads of racing to return. It’s not been too unhealthy. It wasn’t a catastrophe day.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Remco Evenepoel’s effort to bridge throughout to Vingegaard and Pogačar earned him the white jersey for his troubles.
“I needed to do many of the work alone,” Evenepoel defined within the combined zone afterwards. “I believe Richard [Carapaz] got here by means of as soon as solely so I believe it was because of me that we got here again. However ultimately, I believe Tadej’s assault was fairly explosive, fairly spectacular.
“In the long run I believe 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 believe at all times at the start of a race I would like to seek out my explosivity and I believe that’s what got here out right this moment,” he added. “The legs have been good, however not tremendous, like I mentioned earlier than, I am nonetheless in search of my finest form and can attempt to go to 100-105%. I’m proud of right this moment’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 optimistic factor about right this moment.”
