Fischer-Black can only laugh as Pogačar upsets Red Bull's perfectly executed sprint

Finn Fischer-Black finished Thursday's stage with mixed feelings. The 24-year-old New Zealander launched his sprint for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe after a demanding finale — and did everything right. Then Tadej Pogačar came flying past anyway.

The closing kilometres of stage two were shaped by INEOS Grenadiers and Red Bull, both driving the pace hard. "We wanted to make it as tough as possible on the final climb. There aren't that many sprinters here, so we wanted to shed the main threats," Fischer-Black told Cycling Pro Net.

INEOS briefly dropped off the front when Dorian Godon hit a difficult patch, so Red Bull took over to shepherd the front group to the line. "The guys did great work keeping the tempo high in the final kilometre and shutting down the attacks."

Fischer-Black got himself into exactly the position he wanted. After the tricky final climb, he was able to launch his sprint into a relatively flat finish. "I threw the dice in the sprint, but it was hard to beat Tadej and Godon."

The result left him with conflicting emotions. "I'm disappointed not to win, but being in the mix is already something," he said — noting that he had executed precisely what he had planned when he studied the finale and the weather forecast that morning.

"I saw this morning that there would be a headwind, but also slightly from the right. That's why I wanted to go left around Godon, to get a bit of shelter. Tadej ended up coming past at 10 km/h more — so maybe the right side would have been better," he laughed.

It was a laugh to hide the frustration — Fischer-Black had been caught cold by the sheer speed of Pogačar blowing past him. And that despite sticking to the plan: "I stayed with what I had prepared and knew Godon was the man to follow in the sprint. I didn't know at first that he was still there, but when he came at 500 metres, I jumped on his wheel."