Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) was unable to break away from Jonas Vingegaard on the climb up Saint-Lucas on stage 2 of the Tour de France, and was later caught by Remco Evenpole (Sudar-Quick Step) and Richard Calapas (EF Education-Easy Post) also caught them, but it was more disappointing for those who lost time.

They were not blown away by Pogachar, but it was the beginning of precious seconds slowly being lost, and after two days of racing, the top of the GC standings are already becoming clear, and the time lost on Sunday on the summit of San Luca and the fast descent into central Bologna It will be difficult to regain it.

Pogachar and Evenpoel quickly made their way to the podium to receive their yellow and white jerseys. Pogachar once again took the lead in the Tour de France, but Evenpoel, Vingegaard, and Karapas were tied with him, and their GC positions were determined by the stage results of the opening weekend.

The other riders followed behind them, received drinks from Soinier, and headed for the bus, disappointed. Fatigued from a hard 199.2 km race in the heat, they were pondering the consequences of the seconds they had lost.

Primoš Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was the only one of the "big four" GC contenders to lose time, finishing 21 seconds behind Pogachar, Vingegor, Evenpoel, and Karapas. He mumbled a few words of disappointment in Slovenian, then turned to the team bus and reflected on what it all meant.

Jai Hindley finished with his new teammate Roglic, as did Alexandre Vlasov, but neither could close the gap to less than 21 seconds. In Roglic's absence, it was left to Hindley to describe Red Bull-Bohra-Hansgrohe's day

. Obviously the conditions were tough," Hindley said. I'm glad me and Alexandre Brasov were able to help him at the finish."

"We don't know yet what will happen. It's only been two days. Not many races yet, but I think it's pretty exciting."

First stage winner Romain Bardet (dsm firmenich-PostNL) said goodbye for more than a few seconds. Realizing that after only 24 hours, his time in the yellow jersey was over, Bardet was heartbroken in Bologna. He is now fifth, six seconds behind.

The Ineos Grenadiers trio of Tom Pidcock, Carlos Rodriguez, and Egan Bernal finished in the GC chase group and remain in contention for the overall, not knowing who will ultimately be the team leader and who the faithful domestiques. Geraint Thomas (G) appears to have already dropped out after falling off early on the final climb of San Luca, losing 6:45 of his time.

"It didn't go as expected, but in the end we were able to minimize the damage," Pidcock said.

"In three weeks it will be minutes, and 21 seconds means nothing, 21 seconds means nothing, 21 seconds means nothing. I wanted to be at the top, but it wasn't an ideal run until the Tour. At least I was able to be there for them a little bit at the end.

Ineos Grenadier's sporting director, Zach Dempster, understandably tried to see it as glass half full.

"I don't think 21 seconds is bad at this stage. I don't think 21 seconds is bad at this stage.

"If you talk about Carlos and Egan, our protected GC riders, that kind of explosive climb is tough. We know what Pogachar is capable of in Flanders, and Vingegaard is explosive.

Finally, Dempster said that the time could be significant in some circumstances, but not to read too much into it.

"What matters is consistency. Ultimately, consistency is what matters," Dempster said. Obviously, we need to take advantage in key situations, but I think as a team we just need to be confident and keep building day by day."

"G didn't have a good day. But I wanted to see where he was at, he wasn't being protected as GC leader, there are still a lot of players on GC, and I think we're going to see a lot more of him. Chaos could happen, you never know what could happen."

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