Tadej Pogacar said that he was just living in the moment as he wracked up his 22nd Tour de France stage victory on Monday, and reclaimed the coveted yellow jersey.
In Tuesday's 182km hilly fourth stage from Carcassonne to Foix, the 27-year-old will wear the yellow jersey for the 55th time – although his lead over arch rival Jonas Vingegaard is razor thin.
Pogacar won the 196km third stage from Granollers in Spain to Les Angles by just two seconds from the Dane, but gained four more bonus seconds than his rival on the line.
The two riders are tied on overall time but Slovenian Pogacar leads by virtue of his better stage placings.
🚀 The launch of the Pogacar 22 rocket was a complete success!
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 6, 2026
🚀 Lancement de la fusée Pogacar 22 parfaitement réussi !#TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/eKzw4iva9M
Many people were surprised that Pogacar had gone for the stage victory on a route that looked ideally-suited to a breakaway, but the reigning champion said that his UAE Emirates-XRG team had simply seen an opportunity and pounced.
"We love racing and we are here to race for the victory, and we saw in the middle of the stage that we have the possibility to go for the stage and take yellow," said Pogacar, the four-time Tour champion.
"(That is) exactly what happened, so we can be really proud and happy (with) how we rode today and it's a great motivation for the rest of the tour."
His 22nd victory puts him just 13 behind the all-time record held by British former sprinter Mark Cavendish.
But Pogacar said that chasing anything other than victory on the day was not in his thoughts.
"It's still quite far away. You never know, maybe today was my last victory ever," the UAE team leader said.
"So, I prefer to stay in the moment, enjoy this moment of the victory.
"Every victory feels very special and if we can have more moments like yesterday also (when teammate Isaac Del Toro won from Pogacar), I would be grateful.
"But so far, my career is already way beyond my biggest, wildest imagination.
"So, I don't want to think about Mark's record of 35 stages.
"Just go with the flow and see what we can do in the future, but if today is my last victory, I'm happy."
'THEY'RE AMBITIOUS'
UAE's tactic caused surprise among many observers.
Frenchman Alex Baudin was in the breakaway and could have taken the yellow jersey if he had finished a minute or so ahead of the peloton.
Even though it was Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike team that was defending the yellow jersey, UAE took it upon themselves to chase down the breakaway.
Baudin was the last breakaway rider to be caught, 12km from the finish, but could content himself with having done enough to claim the polkadot mountains jersey.
"You can understand that they want to win, for sure," said Baudin, 25, who wore the leader's yellow jersey at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone Alpes for six days last month.
"At least I tried, even though the polkadot jersey wasn't the one I was looking for at first."
Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, who is third overall at 23sec after finishing the stage in eighth, said he could understand Pogacar's desire to win.
"It's a little bit of a shame that they didn't let the break get away, that would have been nice for them," said the Belgian.
"But as Tadej said at the finish: when you feel that you can win, you have to seize the opportunity."
Spaniard Juan Ayuso of Lidl-Trek, who sits fifth overall at 27 seconds, defended the all-conquering UAE outfit.
"They're an ambitious team, they always give everything," said the 23-year-old.
"With the team they have they have shown just how strong they are and what they are capable of.
"And obviously, if they think they can win they do so and any of us would too."