Tadej Pogačar Takes the Yellow Jersey, UAE Continues to Dominate
Stage 3 delivered exactly what the race organizers hoped for. We saw Tadej Pogačar win the stage, take the yellow jersey, and UAE continues to assert their dominance over the entire race. From a fan's perspective, these first three days have been absolutely thrilling, and the organizers got what they wanted: early excitement, clear favorites established, and a race we're locked into watching for the next three weeks.
But the real story goes much deeper than just Tadej winning another stage.
UAE is Flexing Muscle
Here's what stood out most: UAE chased a stage win while having the outright favorite. Why would they do that when they could just control the race and manage their GC position?
Because they can.
This team is unbelievable. Watch how they rode throughout the stage. What normal teams would need three or four riders to do, UAE did with one rider at a time. They controlled the breakaway. They brought back attacks one by one. They rode one entire climb and put the entire peloton on their knees. Then in the final, one rider set up the other rider for the win.
Each of UAE's eight riders, in their own right, can control stages and even win a stage and ride well in the overall. So when they're flexing muscle, they're making a statement. I think that's exactly what they did today. They're asserting dominance. They're letting everyone know they're all in on this Tour de France.
Tadej's Revenge Tour
Here's the storyline nobody is talking about enough: Tadej tends to improve from his setbacks. Tadej tends to improve from his shortcomings. He always wants to level up his past performances.
Last year's Tour de France, I think he wanted much more from it. He wanted more stage wins. He wanted more dominance. He wasn't able to truly show his level due to his knee injury. He was also sick during the race. And I believe that's still bothering him.
This is his revenge tour.
He's got that motivation to come back and show everyone that he's not only the best rider ever to ride in this race, but he's going to show why he's the best rider ever. That explains why he was so comfortable giving yesterday's stage win to Del Toro. He was probably going for the stage win today.
He reminds me a lot of Peter Sagan. I raced with Peter Sagan many times, and it always amazed me how many stages he would use his entire team to chase down seemingly impossible breakaways for another stage win. You'd look at him and say, hey, you've already won four stages today is super hard, why are you going for a fifth? And the guy just loved the game. He loved to level up. He loved to take risks. He loved to keep trying even when it wasn't sure he would win.
You can't win if you don't try.
And Tadej is trying from the beginning of this Tour de France.
What We Learned from the Final
Two key confirmations:
First, Tadej is the strongest rider out there. We knew that, but it's confirmed again.
Second, Tadej is more explosive than Jonas Vingegaard. Last year in the early stages, Tadej was unable to gap Jonas on short explosive climbs. Now it's the second day in a row that he's been able to do that.
Why the difference? I've talked about this before. Jonas is recovering from the Giro d'Italia. He's less explosive due to the effort of recovering from that Grand Tour and building his form for the second half of this race. That's his plan. That's his team's plan. They're sticking to it.
But with a rider like Tadej right now, if you're giving away time and you're not sure you can drop him later, you have to question the strategy. Did you make the right decision going for the Giro? If that was all about setting you up for the best form at the Tour de France, are you putting yourself on the back foot in this first part?
From what I'm seeing, and probably what you're seeing too, Tadej is so much better than Jonas and everybody else that you have to really bank on him exploding himself by accident somewhere later on in this revenge tour.
But the way he's racing and the way he's running his team, he's setting himself up for success, not failure. He's betting on himself and his team. He's not being conservative. He wants to win big. He wants his teammates to win along the way.
But looking at Jonas and looking at Tadej, there are already clear differences. Even though they're technically more or less on the same time, two big blows have already been dealt to Jonas by Tadej.
The Boxing Match Analogy
Think about the Tour de France like a boxing match. Each punch, each hit that one rider gives to another isn't just about the time gap. It's about cumulative damage.
Each knock adds up in muscle depletion. It adds up in pain. It adds up in reduced recovery. It adds up in reduced confidence. These blows that Tadej is delivering to the competition, to Jonas, they're already adding up.
Tadej got two good jabs in already. And he knows what he's doing. He did the Giro two years ago. He knows what this first part of the race feels like. He knows the fatigue and challenges that Jonas is feeling right now. These early hits might be strategic, designed to put Jonas in a tougher spot going into the final part of the Tour because his body is more frail.
That's next level thinking.
The GC Battle is Taking Shape
Right now the top five looks like this:
Tadej Pogačar is the clear favorite. Dominating, confident, on a revenge tour, and getting stronger each day.
Jonas Vingegaard is second but losing ground. The Giro effect is real. He needs to rebuild his explosive power and get his threshold zones back up.
Remco Evenepoel is third and looking strong. He seems to be handling the early explosiveness well. His positioning could have been better, but he's there.
Ayuso from Trek is a dark horse top five contender. Quinn Simmons is riding incredibly strong for Trek, helping position Ayuso. These two are a team to watch. Ayuso is building form and doesn't have internal team pressure, which helps him stay comfortable and progress.
Lipowitz is steadily improving. He improved from the team time trial to today. He rides like a diesel engine, very steady, and he's staying with the leaders on explosive efforts. Top five contender for sure, maybe top ten.
Johannessen is another interesting rider. He doesn't have much team help in the end, so he's kind of freelancing. He has great climbing ability and explosiveness. He publishes his power, and it's not crazy numbers. He might be the people's choice for the Tour, the guy closest to human that you can identify with. He's a rider who could slip into a breakaway, take bonus time, or even challenge for the yellow jersey in transitional stages. He's flying under the radar for many teams, but that won't last long.
What's Next
The next couple stages are sprinter stages, which aren't really my specialty. I wasn't a sprinter. But I know a lot about GC racing, fighting for position, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, missing splits, making splits, and crashes. So I'll do my best to provide insight from that GC perspective.
I'm definitely looking forward to Thursday's next mountain stage. That could be exciting. Tomorrow might be a breakaway stage, and we can talk about tactics.
The Bottom Line
These first three days have been exactly what cycling fans want to see. We have clear contenders. We have dominant teams. We have a clear narrative. Tadej is on his revenge tour, and he's not messing around. Jonas is fighting but facing an uphill battle. The supporting cast around them is strong and interesting.
The Tour de France is shaping up to be one for the ages.
Thanks for reading. Looking forward to the next stage.
