Pogacar hungry for yellow

Healy ahead as 2nd week hostilities start

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The second week of the Tour de France may be short, but it will be crucial, defending champion Tadej Pogacar said on Tuesday's rest day when he went to the barber, had a burger and enjoyed a French cafe, but was raring to get back on the bike.

Here AFP breaks down the Slovenian’s views on the challenges of the week ahead.

FIVE-DAY WEEK

Pogacar has been unusually serious during the opening week of the Tour which he described on Tuesday as “explosive, nervous, stressful and super-hard”.

He has also complained about the heat, tiredness and how annoyed he can get by the stonewall tactics from Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma team.

“Week two will be really fast,” he predicted. But he was not talking about the speed of the wheels, rather that it will be over more quickly due to being a day shorter after the 10-day slog before the first rest day.

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