Tadej Pogačar's pursuit of a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title didn't get off to a perfect start in the opening team time trial stage in Barcelona, finishing third on the day as long-term rival Jonas Vingegaard surged to victory for Visma-Lease a Bike.
He has said he wasn't overly disappointed, however, noting more pressingly how pleased he was to have the stressful day that a TTT brings behind him, with teams starting their prep early in the morning, only for the whole day to be decided in 21 minutes and 47 seconds after hours of anticipation.
"No," he replied plain and simply to the question of whether he was disappointed, "I'm really happy, we did a super good performance. Of course, we always aim for the victory, but I think we did a really good TTT and I'm just super happy the day is over.
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"It's really hard to do this day, it's long and you prepare for just these 20 minutes with the team. It's really stressful, but I enjoyed it today. It's been a long time since I did a TTT and, actually, it was a really good performance. We can be happy with today and motivated for the next days."
Pogačar also had the title of best climber on the day to be satisfied with, awarded the polka-dot jersey for having the best time from the final time check to the finish line, taking in the last two climbs to Montjuïc, beating Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel's time by two seconds.
"Good news: I have climbing legs," he laughed, "but no, it was quite short the climb, and Isaac [del Toro] did a really amazing job," said Pogačar, who was typically full of praise for his UAE Team Emirates XRG teammates who led him into the foot of the final climbs.
"He's such a good kid and really all the team did super good today – it's thanks to the team that I have polka dots tomorrow."
It's the first time Vingegaard has worn the yellow jersey since he defeated Pogačar for a second time overall at the Tour de France in 2023, but the Slovenian is ominously looking for a riposte as early as tomorrow's punchy finish on the same Montuïc hill on stage 2.
"I think we did super good; we went all in and got third place and the polka-dot, so that's good and we can be proud of that," said Pogačar as he very quickly went through the boiling hot mixed zone.
"We will fight for the yellow [jersey] in the next days, maybe already tomorrow. Tomorrow is a super hard, tricky stage, and I think we are ready, but we go day by day."
First, though, the world champion was looking forward to an albeit abbreviated relaxing period post-stage, with such a late finish past 7 pm on Saturday. With three laps up the Côte de Montjuïc lining the final 30km of Sunday's stage, Pogačar will likely be in full attack mode to hit back at Vingegaard, but he didn't give away any of his exact strategy yet.
"I don't know the plan for tomorrow, first I need to decompress from today and chill out a little, but there's not much time left to chill until bedtime," he said, after completing the lengthy list of podium and media requirements for all the jersey wearers post-stage.
"I think for tomorrow it's quite a tricky stage; it's for puncheurs and I think it's going to be really hectic in the final. Also, before the final, it's really complicated, and we need to take care tomorrow, so we'll see what we can do.
"The legs are good, and the sensations are really well, so the shape should be here – I hope I can continue like this."
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