Sunday brought the second mountain stage of the 2022 Tour de France, and with it came little movement at the top of the GC rankings on the appetiser summit finish at Châtel close to the Swiss border.
As the breakaway took the stage – something of a rarity in this year's Tour – the front of the battle for yellow was led once again by race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and his closest rival Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
Behind, only shedding three seconds to the top two, rolled in the next eight men, six of which lay up in the top 10 overall, with Ineos Grenadiers' duo Geraint Thomas and Adam Yates leading the way home.
While race debutant and 'free atom' Tom Pidcock came in four more seconds back and fellow co-leader Dani Martínez suffered an off day to lose 16 minutes, it looks set that the two Britons will be the GC options for Ineos as the race heads into the Alps.
"I think we're in a pretty decent position," deputy team principal Rod Ellingworth told Cyclingnews after the finish. "These three lads will be pretty happy with it."
The day saw UAE Team Emirates control the race once again, after 16th placed Rigoberto Urán had infiltrated the breakaway. Though the Colombian, and much of the rest of the break, was brought back, the race to the line was still contested among the breakaway survivors, rather than UAE once again setting up the win for their leader.
"I didn't think they'd try to ride for the stage but just with the guys – Rigo and that [in the break] we knew they'd have to ride hard," Thomas said while warming down after the stage.
"So, even if they give the jersey away, they don't give it away by much. We knew they'd be working hard all day which they did."
Thomas said that UAE's team, which includes Rafał Majka and Brandon McNulty, as well as strong new winter additions in Marc Soler and George Bennett, aren't as strong as they might be expected to be.
"But they are not as strong as they could be," he said. "They got a lot of good riders like in the winter – they've signed so-and-so in this guy and that guy – but they don't all seem to be firing.
"But still they've got the yellow jersey in the team and someone like Pogačar you're going to up your game and they did today and I'm sure they will for the rest of the race, but they were well in control today."
A prospect that has been mooted in some quarters is an alliance of sorts between Ineos and Jumbo-Visma, who have Vingegaard 39 seconds down on Pogačar and Primož Roglič in 13th at 2:52 down. (Thomas lies third at 1:17 while Yates is a further eight seconds back.)
Thomas said that it's not just up to his team and the Dutch squad to take the fight to two-time champion Pogačar, though, also noting that he's not going to be getting in touch with the team who are also Ineos' rivals for top positions in Paris.
"It's not just us as well. Jumbo will be keen to try something," he said. "It's just like today – Rigo is up the road, so [UAE] have to ride hard. So, it's not like it's just down to us to try and do something and make it hard.
"But I think we can definitely take advantage of a situation if it's in our favour for sure but it's easier said than done because it's the Tour.
"It's one of them, isn't it? If there's a tough stage, with a couple of us and a couple of them up the road then of course, it's in each other's interest to go, but at the same time, I'm not going to be on the phone to Roglič asking him what he's doing, you know?"
