Tadey Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked dangerously in the final kilometers of the 164km stage to La Verrière, despite the course being designed for sprinters.

Poga, a two-time Tour de France winner, chose to compete in the Race to the Sun rather than Tirreno-Adriatico, making his form and GC intentions clear early in the eight-day stage race.

Pogachar's first attack came on the final climb on the Côte de Milon-la-Chapelle with 20km to go. With 20km to go, he broke away with Nielson Powles (EF Education-Easy Post), and the two crossed the summit with the same momentum, with Pogachar taking the lead with a few seconds to go.

Pogachar's first move was ultimately unsuccessful, but it caused panic in the scattered peloton and a small leading group formed at the front.

Paulez then took advantage of the confusion to make another bold move from the dwindling lead group, this time opening a large gap.

When Paules was pulled back again, Pogachar seized the opportunity again.

"Midway through the race Vingegaard said let's go for the bonus sprint, but we got a gap too," Pogachar explained after the stage.

Pogachar earned a valuable six-second time bonus and looked back to see defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Pierre Latour (Total Energies) riding together.

For a moment, the move looked like it would happen, but Pogacar quickly gave up on the effort when he realized that Vingegaard was not pulling and was unlikely to hold off the sprinters.

"It wasn't enough just the two of us, and there was a headwind.

"It was clear it was going to be a sprint race, so we stayed in the pack and crossed the finish line safely. I could see that he [Vingegaard] wasn't pulling at all, so it was useless to continue on."

"So I decided to save some legs for the next day."

Pogachar admitted that he did not feel good before the stage, but still went on the attack.

"At the start I felt a little bit bad, but every hour it got a little bit better. But every hour it got a little bit better.