'It’s a weird style of racing' – Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates locked in battle at Critérium du Dauphiné

There was no direct skirmish between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, but the proxy war between their respective teams continued on the long road to Issoire.

In Sunday’s opening stage, the presence of a short, sharp climb in the finale had tempted Vingegaard onto the offensive, and his attack triggered the five-man move from which Pogacar claimed the win.

The terrain wasn’t as conducive to attacking on stage 2, but both Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG could be seen marking out their territory at the head of the peloton at various points throughout the day.

On Monday’s most difficult climb, for instance, Visma massed on the front and set a brisk tempo. Their effort on the category 2 Côte de Chateau du Buron with 54km to go was enough to distance eventual stage winner Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), but their intention was not to burn off the fast men.

In the finale, UAE and Visma were both to the fore on the Côte de Nonette, but neither of their leaders was tempted onto the offensive when Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) attacked midway up the climb.

On the fast run-in to Issoire, meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates-XRG took up the reins at the head of the peloton, stringing out the race and keeping Pogacar tucked in towards the front until they reached the flamme rouge.

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) placed second in the ensuing bunch sprint behind Milan, and he explained afterwards that there had been little prospect of the Italian being irretrievably distanced on the Côte de Chateau du Buron. Visma’s acceleration had been a flex, he suggested, rather than a genuine attempt to whittle down the bunch.

“It’s about the two big GC teams showing which one is the strongest: they’re just racing each other,” Wright told ITV and FloBikes afterwards. “It’s a weird style of racing, to be honest. It’s like, ‘Who can be the first on the downhill ahead of the other team?’ It’s just makes it hard. To be honest, we were riding hard up that climb for no reason, and it was the sort of pace where no one could attack.”

Pogacar and Vingegaard both finished safely in the main peloton on Monday. Although the Slovenian surrendered his yellow jersey to Milan on time bonuses, he remains four seconds ahead of Vingegaard and ten clear of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

Wednesday’s short time trial to Péray should be the next rendezvous between the general classification contenders – but even though it's a day for the sprinters, expect Pogacar and Vingegaard's teams to continue to police the front end of the peloton on the road to Charantonnay on Tuesday.