No longer just respect, but also awe for Pogacar and Vingegaard: "We have to adapt to them"

Romain Grégoire’s quotes after stage 2 in the Tour were brutally honest, though also a bit painful. “I didn’t dare use my elbows and shoulders to fight for Van der Poel’s wheel. I regret that. I wouldn’t have beaten them anyway, and third or fourth doesn’t change much, but it’s about the principle and the intention. I would have preferred to fight for his wheel until 200 meters from the finish, and I missed that courage and fighting spirit.”

The French Groupama-FDJ rider spoke of “an inferiority complex.” “Maybe it’s an inferiority complex because I told myself I couldn’t beat them anyway.” In an interview with Marca, Enric Mas echoed similar sentiments on Sunday. “Those two are incredible. They’re fantastic riders with so much depth. It’s clear we have to adapt to them, and that’s what I’m doing. We have to make sure we don’t lose time, and thanks to the team, I finished in the group of favorites.”

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The Eurosport interview with Oscar Onley was just as disarming. The 22-year-old Brit from Picnic PostNL finished sixth on his Tour debut in the punchy finale and was clearly happy with that. “I struggled a bit with positioning the whole day. I punctured at quite a bad moment, and it was pretty hard from there to get back to the front. But I managed to get back up there when it mattered, and I just tried it in the final,” he said, reflecting on his attack attempt.

“It probably wasn't necessary to respond to others, because there's a lot stronger guys here that should do that. But maybe that’s my inexperience there,” he admitted honestly. Then a smile appeared on his face. “At one point in the final kilometer, I was between Alaphilippe, Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Van der Poel, and I was like: okay, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. It’s always nice racing against these guys. It's a pleasure and you get a lot of satisfaction out of it.”