'It was a proper Tour de France stage today' – Tadej Pogacar continues war of nerves with rivals at Dauphiné

Tadej Pogačar described stage 3 of the Critérium du Dauphiné through rugged terrain in rising temperatures as being akin to a Tour de France stage. A useful work-out for July, in other words, and the Slovenian praised his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad's commitment to managing a challenging breakaway that included dangerous riders Eddie Dunbar and Florian Lipowitz.

"It was a proper Tour de France stage today, hard all day," Pogačar said after the finish. "We committed to work as a team, and we did a super job."

The world champion recognised the difficulty of controlling the day's breakaway, especially with strong climbers who could feature in the GC shakeup set to gain time in the form of Lipowitz and Dunbar.

"We knew that if we are alone, it's going to be hard to control this kind of breakaway," Pogačar explained. “Especially with Eddie Dunbar and Florian Lipowitz inside, you shouldn't give them too much advantage.”

While the UAE domestiques bore the brunt of the chase work, Pogačar felt they received limited support from other teams. Soudal Quick-Step contributed one rider to the chase, while Pogačar was more critical of Visma | Lease a Bike’s contribution.

"Quick-Step realised that and threw one guy in to help, but it was not enough," he said. "In the middle, Visma did a little bit of help, but I guess they're not worried about the other contenders."

Despite the challenges, Pogačar remained satisfied with his team's performance. He viewed the demanding stage as valuable preparation for cycling's biggest race next month, comparing this stage to something that they will experience this July at the Tour de France.

"We did a really good team effort today. It's a good day out there for the team," he added. "We get ready for the Tour. It was a proper hard Tour de France breakaway stage."

Early in the stage, there were frissons between the GC contenders at the intermediate sprint, where Pogačar picked up two bonus seconds, while Remco Evenepoel rolled across the line in third to pick up a bonus second of his own.

In the overall standings, Pogačar is now ninth overall, 1:06 behind Romeo, but six seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and 11 ahead of Evenepoel.

The Criterium du Dauphiné continues with a time trial on Wednesday, providing another opportunity for the general classification contenders to test their form ahead of the Tour de France with a 17.4km test.