A famous UAE 1-2 sees Isaac del Toro triumph, as Tadej Pogacar gifts the Mexican his first Tour de France stage

Tadej Pogacar ripped up his team’s script in the closing metres of the Tour de France’s second stage in Barcelona. A one-two secured, the World Champion backed off to gift his young lieutenant Isaac Del Toro a maiden stage win, sealing it with a second place for himself. Despite sacrificing a handful of seconds in the general classification, the result halved Pogacar’s deficit to the maillot jaune, Jonas Vingegaard, and moved him into second place overall. 

The UAE strategy at the start of the day had been for Isaac del Toro to be Pogacar’s last man in line, in order to tee his leader up to take a 22nd Tour de France stage win. 99.9% of the stage unfolded more or less as expected.

The early break of Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), Alex Molenaar (Caja Rural) and Felix Engelhardt (Jayco Alula) was allowed to get away with minimal fanfare. Rather than either UAE themselves, or the team of the race leader, Visma-Lease a Bike, it was Tom Pidcock’s Pinarello-Q36.5 who set themselves the task of controlling the gap. They did a perfectly respectable job, locking the trio in at just over three minutes, and gradually whittling the lead down over the next few hours. The other teams were more than happy to let them go to work, with Nico Denz politely refusing suggestions his team might care to assist in the effort.

Molenaar showed himself the strongest of the group at the intermediate sprint and the first categorised climb of the race, outpunching his allies on both occasions to ensure he would at least take the King of the Mountains jersey. 

With 60km to go, and with the pace picking up, Del Toro suffered an unfortunate mechanical that set him back over two minutes and might have put a lesser rider out of the race. UAE’s plan B made relatively light work of returning to the bunch, and then to the front of the pack, just behind Tadej Pogacar. Del Toro was far from the only key rider to be hit by a puncture or worse. As the race closed in on the city limits, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) had to switch to a team-mates bike, and then again to his own spare, before being piloted back to the peloton by Aurelien Paret-Peintre.

The race finished off the break just before arriving at the familiar Montjuic finishing circuit - incorporating the same climb ridden on Saturday in the team time trial. Brandon McNulty took to the front of the bunch and set an infernal pace that was too much for many. The American, with Pogacar on his wheel, remained on the front for the first two of the three circuits, before passing the baton with just 5km remaining. Seixas’ team-mate, Tiesj Benoot, briefly took up the pace-setting but it wasn’t hard enough for Adam Yates, who hit the front 3km from the finish. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) tried an attack that was tracked by Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) but which left Pogacar unmoved. Another punch, thrown by Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) at 1800m to go, was chased down by Del Toro, and looked to be used as a launch pad for Pogacar, who was right on the wheel.

Instead, with the road running out, Pogacar kept an eye on the riders behind. After ensuring none of Vingegaard nor Evenepoel had the speed to come over the top, the four-time champion eased up, allowing his team-mate to take a memorable win from his first ever Tour de France stage.

Filippo Ganna dropped down the overall rankings, as Remco Evenepoel moved up into an early podium spot. The Tour de France continues on Monday with a stage starting in Granollers, north of Barcelona, and finishing in the French Pyreneean commune of Les Angles.

Though that will remain on the back of Juan Ayuso tomorrow, because the Mexican man will be in green.

1. Isaac Del Toro
2. Juan Ayuso +03"
3. Paul Seixas +26"
4. Romain Gregoire +28"
5. Lenny Martinez +37"

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) +6''
3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 15''
4. Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) +16''
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) +19''

Thirty points on the line puts him into his first classification lead at the Tour de France, with Molenaar and Pogacar both on 25, Remco in 4th on 22, Felix Engelhardt on 20.

That's the big takeaway from that finish. And it's not like we're deep into the race. Pogacar doesn't have a massive buffer over his rivals - he's behind. He has no idea how this race is going to play out, how Vingegaard's legs will be, and how much time he'll need in the mountains. Yet he opted not to pull rank, or even just stick to their original plan. I don't think I've ever seen that much confidence on show by someone in a bike race before.

STAGE TOP 5
1. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG)
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG)
3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)
5. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)

Pogacar let him have it! What a fascinating final few hundred metres that was, as the World Champion kept on the wheel of his team-mate, keen to stay behind him while making sure no-one else was coming over the top to mug them from behind. Vingegaard and Evenepoel were there but they were fighting to keep contact, while Pogacar was in complete control. Brilliant.

FLAMME ROUGE: HERE GOES DEL TORO!

Del Toro whose job it is to chase this one.

Carapaz tracks it. Pogacar is unmoved.

Pogacar behind him, then Del Toro, Evenepoel, Vingegaard. Bernal is struggling at the back. Van der Poel has been dropped.

Does he know where his leader, Paul Seixas, is? He looks around to inspect the damage he's doing. He's shed a few Visma riders, among others.

For Abrahamsen you'd imagine, but really it's about positioning before the last time up Montjuic. Finally Brandon McNulty swings over. What a job he's done today.

And it has to be mentally exhausting, not to mention how physically onerous it must be to ride this, whether hiding in the wheels or providing the engine. Just time to take a few more bottles, douse each other down, reduce that core temperature.

Right in the middle of the pack, but something is being cooked up in the UAE kitchen, because Pogacar and McNulty have been engaged in animated conversation. It's not "if", it's "when".