What we saw yesterday at the Dauphine was not Tadej Pogacar's best time trial. The Slovenian finished 48" behind winner Remco Evenepoel and was 28" behind Jonas Vingegaard, who recorded the second-best time. The world champion was not worried about the result and after the race decided to take a look at his Visma Lease a Bike rivals' bikes, specifically Matteo Jorgenson's.

After cooling down on the rollers, the Slovenian champion, taking advantage of the Visma - Lease a Bike team's brief absence, wanted to take a close look at the American's bike. Images captured by Eurosport France show how the Slovenian took the opportunity to quickly inspect Vingegaard's bike even lifting it to understand its weight.

Pogacar had already won the first day of racing, beating Vingegaard in a thrilling stage finale. But yesterday the UAE Team Emirates-XRG Slovenian had to surrender to Remco Evenepoel's superiority, which is not a surprise, as in last year's Tour de France's seventh stage, a similar time trial, Evenepoel was the fastest and should always be considered an Olympic and World Champion in this specialty.

Perhaps what might stand out more is not Pogacar's fourth place, but the fact that the Slovenian failed to surpass or get close to Vingegaard.

Today's stage might seem insignificant on paper, but considering what we've already seen in the first stage and the big names' desire to win, the war could start earlier than expected...