After Matej Mohoric's stunning stage win in the third week of the Tour de France, the Bahrain Victorious rider had more success in this weekend's Tour de Pollogne, winning the second stage with a tough climb over Joan Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), He now leads the overall standings.

Mohoric is now 4 seconds behind Almeida and 10 seconds ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), who has also won.

The Tour de Pollogne is traditionally a close race, and Almeida, the Portuguese national time trial champion, could well challenge for the lead against the clock on Thursday. But on the other hand, Mohoric may try to pull away from his rivals on the short, steep hill in the last kilometer of Monday's third stage. In other words, the race is still wide open.

"We'll see how the rest of the race goes, and I have overall ambitions," Mohoric said after winning stage 2. But it won't be easy because of the TT."

"Tomorrow [Monday] is an interesting stage, with a lot of climbing, a long descent at the end, and a tricky uphill finish. So there will be a much smaller group again, so maybe we can get a stage win."

"Tomorrow (Monday) is an interesting stage.

"I've felt incredibly strong all day today and, in fact, since Wednesday, when I trained for the first time after the Tour.

Easier said than done, but Mohoric told Cycling News on Sunday and before his victory that he did not have much of a problem heading to Pologna after the Tour de France.

"I'm not much of a party person," he said.

"I trained for three and a half hours on Wednesday, four and a half hours on Thursday, rested on Friday, and here we are."

Pollogne is a race where Mohoric has shined in the past. As Almeida pointed out after the second stage, the top three finishers in this year's Carpathian stage 2 were the same three who made the GC podium in 2021: the Portuguese won, Mohoric was second, and Kwiatkowski was third.

"I think we can be happy with second place. Matej was pretty strong and in the last few hundred meters I had to change to a bigger chainring because Matej was using a smaller chainring.

"Me, Rafal (Majka) and Brandon (McNulty) were the three leaders.

"Rafal almost made it, and maybe he could have if Matej hadn't closed the gap. But in any case, it was pretty good."

Mohoric's stage win in Pollogne was a bit of an epic in itself, as he launched a solo attack on the final day of the 2019 race, about 57 km from the line, and then ran away to the finish. As Cycling News reported at the time, "Mohoric pointed to the sky as he crossed the line and dedicated his victory to Björg Lambrecht, who died tragically in a crash on stage 3 of the race."

"I was aiming for GC in 2019, but I screwed up on the first mountain stage and crashed," Mohoric recalled to Cycling News on Sunday morning, hours before his second stage win in Pollogne.

"And the next day I was mad at myself.

"Pollogne is a route that suits me very well because the climbs are punchy, short, and there are a lot of them. "

Mohoric's comments after his photo finish stage win in last week's Tour de France at Poligny against Caspar Asgreen (Sourdal-Quickstep) were widely He was lauded.

"I'm very happy to be here because one of the reasons I do this job is to inspire people, and it makes me happier when a lot of people look up to you and perhaps change their lives for the better," he said.

"So I'm proud of what we accomplished as a team and I'm also proud that my speech touched so many people.

"We all have struggles in our daily lives and sometimes it's hard to put those struggles into words, but I managed to do so."

"The fact that I have inspired people makes me feel good."

He had no regrets about his decision not to go to the World Championships. He said, "I saw the level of competition at the Tour.

"On a course like Glasgow, it is almost impossible to get a result unless you can control the race all day long.

"Because on a circuit like that, with so many corners, you have to stay out of trouble and stay out of chaos. So I think the countries that have the strongest teams, mainly made up of domestiques, will have a big advantage on that track."

"Obviously, at the time this decision was made, I hadn't won a stage of the Tour and I wanted to achieve something with the great conditions we have. But the Tour of Pollogne and Benelux (Leniwy Tour) were a big part of this plan, so I'm sticking with it for now."

If the World Road Championships in Glasgow remain out of the plan, there is one World Championship that Mohoric could compete in before the end of 2023.

"I plan to compete in the Canadian race and the Tour of Croatia, but I may also compete in the Gravel World Championships.

Either way, Mohorec is focused on Pollogne and looking to take the next step in the World Tour races in Central Europe. His victory in Pollogne on Sunday and his overall lead in the Tour de France proved that he is one of the few bonanza riders in the Tour de France, even after the Champs-Élysées festivities have disappeared from cycling's rearview mirror. But the recollection of his Tour stage win speech may linger for some time yet.