Tadej Pogacar just misses out on 100th pro victory on Tour de France stage 2

"It was really amazing. There was everything - rain, stress, hectic, danger, short climbs. Just like a Classic stage," Pogačar said afterwards. "I was feeling good in the end and as a team we rode really good, but Mathieu [van der Poel] was stronger at the finish line today."

Despite missing out narrowly on the stage win, Pogačar expressed satisfaction with his overall performance and demonstrated enthusiasm about wearing the polka dot jersey for only the second time in his Tour de France career as he was either wearing the yellow jersey, or the white jersey in recent Tour editions.

"I've worn it two times already in my career overall, but I think only one day so far in my career in six Tours de France," Pogačar explained. "Tomorrow is going to be the second day ever in polka dots, if I counted right."

The king of the mountains classification is clearly special for the UAE Team Emirates -XRG leader, who has previously won the polka dot jersey twice before, in the 2021 and 2020 editions of the Tour, respectively.

"I'm looking forward to it because people like it, people like the polka dots," he said. "It's a special feeling riding in this jersey."

Pogačar tipped his hat to stage winner Van Der Poel with a simple "chapeau to him" while expressing contentment with his own result, adding: "I'm super happy to take second."

The challenging conditions created a dramatic day of racing that thinned out some of the early hierarchies in this year's Tour, with Pogačar and also Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) demonstrating their strong form not on their terrain.

In the overall standings, Pogačar sits second overall, four seconds behind Van der Poel and two seconds ahead of Vingegaard.