INEOS Grenadiers shrugs off Tour's stage 2 losses: "21 seconds doesn't mean anything"

INEOS Grenadiers had a difficult day at the Tour de France, with Laurens de Plus going down and losing some time in the hilly finale in Bologna. The British team had many cards but none were able to match the best of the Madona di San Luca; but the team is not concerned with the few seconds shed to Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Carapaz.

For Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard specifically, it's unlilely that the INEOS riders are paying too much attention. But in the fight for the podium, two rivals gained some time. "It's not exactly what we’d hoped," Tom Pidcock told CyclingWeekly at the end of the day. "But it was damage limitation in the end. There’s going to be minutes in three weeks. 21 seconds doesn't mean anything."

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In the descent and final flat kilometers a few seconds were removed from the front groups, much to the work of INEOS and Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe who had several riders each in the group. INEOS saw Tom Pidcock, Carlos Rodríguez and Egan Bernal all finish safely in the 20-rider group.

Team DS Zak Dempster shared the opinion, not inflating the importance of the seconds lost here, which may be close to meaningless when the riders reach the high mountains in the final weeks of the race. "We couldn't respond. But I think, you know, 21 seconds at this stage isn’t too bad. We’re going to be talking about minutes in the third week…There were a bunch of other guys there that weren't able to hold the wheel either."

Geraint Thomas was not there, losing several minutes and officially dropping out of GC contention. The Welsh veteran commented on Jonas Vingegaard's strong climb, where he proved to be back to his best form despite the doubts that were cast before the race. "I was not overly surprised, to be honest. We knew he would be good. I expected Tadej to get a gap, so if he didn’t then fair play, hats off to Jonas."

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