Tadej Pogačar arrived back to his team bus with a relaxed swagger after stage 10 of the Tour de France. “Hey guys,” he shouted across to the waiting reporters. The world champion had lost his yellow jersey, but, in the race’s first mountains test, he had survived an assault from Visma-Lease a Bike. Any warning of alarm bells had been averted.
The attacks in the Massif Central began inside 25km to go. After Visma’s Sepp Kuss set the pace, his team-mate Matteo Jorgenson – who promised a “festival of watts” pre-stage – was the first to lash out of the saddle. Pogačar, for a moment, found himself on the back foot. But everything was as expected.
