For the umpteenth day in a row, Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) put on another display of his racing power as the Slovenian darted away on Sunday at the summit finish of Châtel from the main GC group.
Pogačar's gains over all the other favourites, bar an attentive Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), amounted to a scant three seconds, and with the stage win and top three places also gone, there were no bonus seconds on offer either.
But after a blistering display of power on the cobbles at Roubaix, back-to-back stage wins at Longwy and Super Planches des Belles Filles and a third place in Lausanne, the Slovenian argued that grabbing every opportunity he could, and simultaneously avoiding last-minute ambushes, made perfect sense.
"If the chance is there for me to take them, why not?" he told reporters before heading off for a rest day.
"Today on the final climb we were controlling things really well, and I jumped away so as not to be surprised by anyone. It was enough to make a three-second gap. It's a good way to get seconds and it was a good day for us."
He was not surprised that after Super Planche des Belles Filles in the Vosges where Vingegaard unfurled a late attack, the Dane was the quickest to react again when the race reached the Alps.
"It's going to be a big battle between me and him," Pogačar, currently leading Vingegaard by 39 seconds, predicted. "But also the other guys are not so far back. The gaps are still not big enough to be sure of anything, but he's doing really well."
By this point in the 2021 Tour, Pogačar was leading by over two minutes after having destroyed the field en route to Le Grand-Bornand, but in 2022, so far the Slovenian is seemingly employing another tactic to buttress his lead. In fact, you could say his determination to snatch time wherever and whenever seems to be more like trying to obtain victory on points rather than with a single knock-out punch.
However, the main Alpine challenges are yet to come, and opportunities for landing the kind of blow that almost won Pogačar the 2021 Tour in one fell swoop, then, will not be lacking very soon. And in each pre-Alp skirmish, the more time he takes (as well as the morale boost back-to-back stage wins can offer), the more the ball will be in Pogačar's court on Wednesday on the summit finish of the Col du Granon and on Thursday at the Alpe d'Huez.
"Both the Alpe d'Huez and the Granon are brutal," Pogačar said. "The Galibier [claimed both on Wednesday and on Thursday - Ed.] is so long and high and Alpe d'Huez is so steep. I think of the two, Alpe d'Huez with the Croix de Fer before it is the Queen stage of this year's Tour de France."
While the Alps are their own challenge, the ever-lengthening shadow of COVID-19 over the entire Tour de France is another threat not just to Pogačar but the entire peloton. However, as race leader, the Slovenian's reactions to the current situation often spark the greatest interest.
Asked if he had already taken the Tour de France rest day test, as was the case just a few minutes later for some riders who had finished stage 9, Pogačar said he would do shortly.
"I took a test two days ago, when Vegard [Stake Laengen] had to pull out and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for today," Pogačar said. "We are taking this virus really seriously, we take precautions, we're by ourselves in our hotel rooms and we're quite isolated. I just hope that most of the bunch will stay safe."
