"The Tour de France is a long race — anything can still happen" - Carlos Rodriguez not panicking despite already losing 1:20 on GC

It has been a fairly disastrous start to the 2025 Tour de France for the INEOS Grenadiers. To compound the first stage abandon of Filippo Ganna, both Geraint Thomas and Carlos Rodriguez already find themselves more than a minute down in the general classification after 2 stages.

Having been caught behind the decisive split on stage 1, losing 39 seconds, Rodriguez was again caught unawares in the finale of stage 2, losing another 31 seconds as a result. “It’s been a slightly stressful start to the Tour,” the Spaniard admitted in quotes collected with Marca before the start of stage three this Monday. “Yesterday I was unlucky — I was badly positioned going into the final part of the stage. I got boxed in and didn’t quite have the legs."

Whilst his positioning wasn't ideal and tactically he was found wanting however, perhaps the biggest cause for concern for Rodriguez is that he simply didn't have the legs. "Maybe I pushed too hard on the first climb, and then on the second, when the others came back from behind, I just couldn’t stay with them," he explains. "That’s 30 seconds lost, which is never ideal, but we’ll keep giving our best and hope things go better in the coming days.”

Whilst being 1:20 off the Maillot Jaune is clearly a far from ideal start to the Tour for Rodriguez however, the Spaniard isn't panicking just yet. “Of course I’d rather not have lost time to the other contenders, but the Tour de France is a long race — anything can still happen," he clarifies. "There’s no need to panic or overreact.”

And the days that best suit Rodriguez are still to come. “I prefer the big mountain stages, but flat days are part of cycling too," he concludes. "We have to stay competitive in all types of terrain.”