Pogacar reluctantly starts his mission for yellow, but Visma | LAB is pushing key domestiques: "Won’t lose time if I can avoid it"

Perhaps he was a bit disappointed when he looked back after his attack in the second stage of the Tour de France and saw Jonas Vingegaard right behind him. The Dane of Visma | Lease a Bike was able to respond to Tadej Pogacar's first attack of the race, immediately making the dynamics clear again. The Slovenian is in excellent form, as expected, and so UAE-Team Emirates is all-in on Pogi, even if his teammates will still be there in the background later on.

Pogacar described his attack on the final San Luca climb as a sort of test. "When the break went for it, we knew they had a good chance of making it. I only felt good on the final circuit. Visma | Lease a Bike’s pace was already high during the first lap, but even higher during the second. I decided to attack anyway, to test myself a bit. Jonas was on my wheel very quickly, but that's no surprise."

At UAE-Team Emirates, they said before the Tour that they expected an excellent Vingegaard, and so far, that seems to be the case. Pogacar didn’t gain any time on his rival, nor on Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz who were attempting to catch up with them. "I’m glad I made things a bit explosive, but Jonas was quickly on my wheel. A group also caught up, but it was a good stage," he said contentedly. However, he confessed to Evenepoel on the rollers that he had tried his best to avoid taking the yellow jersey. "I left a gap, but I still have the yellow," we hear him say.

The yellow jersey – which he took from Romain Bardet – was at least a tangible trophy for his attacking spirit. "It's good to be back in yellow, which didn’t happen last year. I don’t have a margin, but it feels good. This confirms that I am strong," said Pogacar, who doesn’t seem intent on holding the yellow jersey until Nice, like he did with the pink in the Giro d'Italia. "Let's see, we stick to the original plan."

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Adam Yates pushed, but what about the other shadow leaders?

To say that Pogacar is in great shape would be an understatement. The big question is: what about the rest of UAE-Team Emirates? Visma | Lease a Bike surprisingly set the pace twice on the San Luca, and only Adam Yates intervened to accelerate. The Brit finished third last year but showed with his move that the general classification will be of secondary importance to him. This is essentially the case for the rest of the team as well, team leader Joxean Matxin told IDLProCycling.com at the start. "We have only one plan, and that is plan-Tadej."

With a strong Vingegaard, that plan makes sense, although last year Yates eventually secured the third spot on the final podium as Pogacar's lieutenant. A similar achievement could also be in store for João Almeida or Juan Ayuso. "Last year we ended up with two guys on the podium because the race allowed it. But now we only have one priority," Matxin emphasizes again.

What about a scenario like Visma | Lease a Bike in the 2023 Vuelta, where Sepp Kuss, Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic finished on the podium together? Matxin laughs. "We are UAE-Team Emirates, not Visma | Lease a Bike. We first need to see who Tadej's rivals will be, so we don’t rule out that our other guys might lose time or achieve a good classification. The race will decide."

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Who should be the first to lead for Pogacar? Ayuso doesn’t want to lose time

If the riders at UAE-Team Emirates indeed align, then besides Yates, Almeida and Ayuso will likely also have to step up. Push the pace, risking losing time themselves. Matxin: "We will have a plan for every stage, and that can vary, depending on the course and Tadej's role. For the mountain stages, the team hierarchy will be different than in flat stages. We know exactly what we want from each rider in every race."

Ayuso agrees with the plan but emphasizes to this website that the UAE riders are not just going to drop anyone from the classification. The four riders we just talked about are all within the top 23 for a reason. Ayuso, Almeida and Yates are all 21 seconds behind their leader. "Maybe I’ll have to lead for him at some point. Tadej is the priority," says Ayuso. "But I’m not just going to lose time to give myself more space for an attack later in the race."

The third-place finisher in the 2022 Vuelta and fourth in the 2023 Vuelta knows what he wants but seemed to show a bit of weakness on day one? He laughs when we confront him with the image of UAE leading in stage 1 and him hanging at the back. "I was fine, it was just hot. I fetched some bottles and then stayed at the back. People shouldn’t read more into it than it was. It was one of the hottest races I’ve ever done. Fortunately, everything went well, no one crashed, and we can say we had a good start. Hopefully, that continues."