The Tour of the Alps is expected to be a showdown between Bahrain Victorious, Team DSM, and Ineos Grenadier. However, Groupama-FDJ was also active in the second stage, showing its strength by putting Michael Stoller and Matteo Badilatti in the breakaway, and Attila Valter sprinted behind Pero Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) and Romain Bardet (Team DSM) to take 3rd He finished in third place and moved up to third overall. [Meanwhile, Stoller will be looking for another victory after two stage wins at the 2021 Vuelta a España.

18-year-old Lenny Martinez, son of former professional MTB racer Miguel Martinez, also finished in the front group of 16 selected riders. Martinez won the prestigious Giro della Lunigiana junior stage race in 2021 and joined the Groupama-FDJ Continental team in 2022. Last Saturday, he competed in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège under-23 race and then jumped on a plane to Italy as a guest rider for the WorldTour team.

Only Thibaut Pinot was missing from the lead group of Grupama-FDJ, but perhaps the Frenchman is saving himself for an attack on Wednesday's Passo Fulcia and Thursday's harder mountain stage on the way up Austria's massive Grossglockner climb He's probably saving himself for the harder mountain stages.

"As you can see, it was a very hard and interesting stage. Passo Rolle at 1,984 meters and Passo della Mendola with Sivakov.

"We were pushing pretty hard and I honestly thought we could get away with it. I didn't waste any time, so I was very surprised to see Bahrain catching up after such a long race. But I don't know if I can handle this intensity for five days.

Barthel's confidence is growing as he moves up from 14th to 3rd in the overall standings. He was 4th in Strada Bianche and finished 14th overall in the 2021 Giro d'Italia, wearing the leader's pink jersey for three stages.

"I felt good this morning before the start, but I was also nervous because of the big climb from the start. Without the right legs, a start like this can be a disaster," Barthel explained.

"Fortunately, I was able to get through the two long climbs of the stage without difficulty. I was hoping Michael Stohler would hold on to the finish, but he got caught so I changed my plans. He still had the strength to help me in the sprint. I did my best but Pero Bilbao and Romain Bardet were strong today."