{"id":205752,"date":"2026-07-05T20:53:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T20:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=205752"},"modified":"2026-07-05T20:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T20:53:44","slug":"vingegaard-leads-tour-de-france-after-stage-2-but-pogacar-has-the-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/07\/05\/vingegaard-leads-tour-de-france-after-stage-2-but-pogacar-has-the-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"Vingegaard Leads Tour de France After Stage 2 \u2013 But Poga\u010dar Has the Momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonas Vingegaard and Visma\u2013Lease a Bike drew first blood in the 113th Tour de France by winning a thrilling team time trial on Saturday’s stage 1 with an impressive team performance and a powerful closing ride by the Dane. As a result, the two-time Tour winner won his first yellow jersey since last winning the race in 2023 and became the first rider since Miguel Indur\u00e1in in 1992 to win the first stage of the Tour after winning the Giro d’Italia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Spaniard went on to win the Tour that year and complete the rare Giro-Tour double, a feat Vingegaard is trying to replicate. Four-time Tour winner Tadej Poga\u010dar \u2013 who accomplished the Giro-Tour double in 2024 \u2013 and his UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG will be disappointed after finishing third, 12 seconds behind the winners and 4 seconds behind second-place Netcompany INEOS, who were carried to the podium by the ultra-rapid Filippo Ganna.<\/p>\n

As opposed to traditional team time trials, no minimum number of team members needed to cross the finish line and the first team member to cross the line gave the team it’s time. In addition, times were taken for all the finishers and made part of their GC ranking, which meant that the general classification contenders were able to go all out on the final climbs without having to worry about their teammates.<\/p>\n

Welcoming an old friend, the yellow jersey<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wearing the yellow jersey again was “a dream come true,” Vingegaard said, and added: “Being back in the yellow jersey is for me the most important. I’m just extremely happy, it’s something I dreamt of for the last three years.”<\/p>\n

Recalling the horror crash in the 2024 Itzulia Basque Country that derailed his career for nearly two years, he said, “I’ve struggled at times in the last few years, [but] now I feel like I can close this chapter in the book. Of course, it will always be a part of my book, laying there on the ground, believing that I’m going to die. And then coming from that to this point is also for me a bit emotional.”<\/p>\n

Another disappointed rider was triple time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel, whose Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe team was not quite up to the level of the podium teams and finished fifth, 19 seconds adrift, with Juan Ayuso and his Lidl-Trek squad coming fourth, at 16 seconds. Still, four of the main five GC contenders ended the stage within 19 seconds of each other, with Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) trailing Vingegaard by 39 seconds in sixth place. But the teenager rode a strong solo over the final 2.5km to keep himself in the running.<\/p>\n

The 19.3km Barcelona course with its two punchy climbs \u2013 900m @ 5.5% and 700m @ 7.3% \u2013 in the last 3km called for specific strategies of how and when to use its riders. Visma and UAE had similar plans, with both teams sparing their leaders from exertions on the flat portion of the course. In the end, both Vingegaard and Poga\u010dar were dropped off on the final climb by their fastest mountain domestique, Davide Piganzoli and Isaac del Toro, respectively. By contrast, Evenepoel and Ganna did most of the heavy lifting for their teams on the flats and on the climbss.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard and Piganzoli started that final ascent with a 15-second lead over Poga\u010dar and del Toro, and the Dane managed to keep most of that gap with a strong finishing ride. But Poga\u010dar could take comfort from the fact that he climbed the 860m ascent three seconds quicker than Vingegaard, so that he led the mountains classification and wore the polka dot jersey on stage two.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood news: I have climbing legs!\u201d he said, with a laugh. \u201cBut it was quite short, the climb. The legs are good, the sensations are really good, so the shape should be here. I hope I can continue like this. We can be happy with today and be really motivated for the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pogi’s revenge shifts the momentum<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sunday’s stage 2 was a surprisingly tough climbing day so early in the Tour. The Category 2 C\u00f4te de Begue climb (6.1km @ 6.5%) midway on the 168.5km course from Tarragon to Barcelona was not long or steep enough to worry any riders but the sprinters. But the three climbs of the C\u00f4te du Ch\u00e2teau de Montju\u00efc (1.6km @ 9.3km) were a different story, especially with the final 400m averaging nearly 14%. That steep ramp came about 2.5km from the finish line and seemed the perfect spot for someone like Poga\u010dar to attack.<\/p>\n

But nobody did. The GC favorites were all together as what remained of the peloton crested the summit. When the attack came, it came in an unexpected place, on the descent, and from an unexpected rider, Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose, riding for Ayuso. He was brought back by del Toro, with Poga\u010dar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel close behind.<\/p>\n

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