"He's not made one single attack" - Adam Blythe confused by Tadej Pogacar's newfound Tour de France conservatism

Over recent years, Tadej Pogacar has been all-conquering as he's swept up Monument victories, Grand Tour success and even a World Championship win. Perhaps the only criticism of Pogacar, is that sometimes he doesn't race with his head, attacking at any and all opportunities that present themselves. Over the first two stages of the 2025 Tour de France however, that seems to have changed.

Pogacar has been content to follow the wheels so far, allowing his rivals such as Jonas Vingegaard and Mathieu van der Poel to make the big accelerations. This sharp switch in strategy from the UAE Team Emirates - XRG leader has confused former British national champion Adam Blythe.

"I tell you what is interesting; Tadej didn't attack," Blythe reflects of stage 2 in his analysis for TNT Sports. "And that is very interesting because normally there are always attacks. Especially two steep climbs strung out like that, you can almost guarantee him waiting, waiting, waiting...now he's going, now he's gone. He's not tried yet, he's not made one single attack."

"Maybe he is just trying to play conservative, maybe just give the others a bit more confidence than what they actually have," Blythe continues, looking to try and explain the newfound conservatism of the world champion. "It's not like Tadej on that terrain not to go, or [not to] try at least."

By contrast however, Jonas Vingegaard has been attacking and vibrant at the front of the bunch over the first 2 stages, causing some potentially very important splits and already distancing the likes of Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic. The roles have reversed between the two storied rivals.

"The style [of racing] is different, but to me that just means he [Vingegaard] feels really strong," adds EF Education-EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters. "What I'm really interested to see with him, when I'm viewing him being that strong in these short, explosive climbs, it makes me think that the time trial that we're going to see [on Wednesday], he is going to take some significant time out of everybody."

"That doesn't mean the race is won or lost or whatever else," he adds. "At first, I thought [Remco] Evenepoel would be the guy in that time trial, but I don't know. From what I'm seeing I think Vingegaard is going to be very impressive in that time trial."

Great friend of Pogacar, Michael Matthews is also part of TNT Sports' coverage of the Tour de France in 2025, and the Australian too has seen a change in tactics between the two main Maillot Jaune contenders. "I think he (Vingegaard ed.) is showing that he can also be a versatile rider on stages like this," Matthews analyses. "In the past we would've thought maybe this would be a stage where Jonas might lose some time on Tadej, or Tadej makes some time on Jonas. I think he's a more rounded rider at the moment and just enjoying riding his bike, which I think we all love to see."

"We don't like to see calculated racing, we want to see guys gambling and throwing it out there and trying to win bike races," adds the Australian in conclusion. "There's obviously the GC at the end of this Tour de France which is the main goal, but along the way there's a lot of opportunity to win stages."