As expected, the show at the Critérium du Dauphiné did not take long to start, and already in the first stage the best riders of the World Tour battled it out. Pogacar won and Vingegaard came second, followed by Van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel.

Tadej Pogačar did not want to leave anything to his rivals, and in the stage that was supposed to favor the one-day race specialists, the general classification leaders immediately stood out. "Two kilometers from the finish, I was thinking more about winning the stage than the general classification" - Pogacar said after the finish line - "This morning I thought I would return to the bus early after today's stage, but that was not the case. I hoped to take a shower and sit comfortably for the rest of the day, but things went differently. I certainly cannot say I'm sorry about how the race went."

The Slovenian then wanted to describe what happened on the Côte de Buffon. "I followed all the attacks on that climb. Visma tried to win starting from that climb. They attacked with everyone. I had excellent legs and managed to parry all the attacks. Just before the summit, Jonas attacked and I can say that his attack was truly painful."

Pogačar then managed to recover on the descent, and at that point, it was known that a war would break out between the two attackers. "Two kilometers from the finish, I was thinking more about the stage victory than the general classification. I knew Mathieu was the fastest, but after a stage like today, I can say that I am fast too."

For the world champion, this is already his eighth seasonal victory, and he certainly does not want to stop, with the final victory of the race remaining the goal. "Perhaps I will retire at the end of my contract. But rest assured that I will have to race for a long time yet...."