Originally Posted by
Howzit
That is absolutely incorrect.
Thats just what TV commentators say for fill.
It is the dream of every rider who starts on the line to wear the jersey for at least a day.
It is even more important for the team sponsors to see one of their riders get a yellow jersey.
There are hundreds of tabloids, magazines, TV coverage, interviews and so on that the yellow jersey wearer gets. This is a MAJOR part of what sponsors want.
Stage 2, it doesnt matter weather the yellow jersey team works or not. The reason teams go work on the front on something like stage two if anything is to either keep their "riding sponsor advertiser" in yellow, or, you guessed it, to be on the TV cameras for their team sponsor to see.
The first 5 stages are a sponsors delight. Every team is trying to get the piece of the pie. Its a big show in the first 5 stages (and the rest of the Tour)
I have to agree, with just a little modifying. The teams of the potential winners are often not willing to put in work to obtain or defend the jersey in the first week. That is different from not wanting it.
You are right the first week is a sponsorfest for the smaller teams with riders racing up cat 4 climbs to be in polkadot for 2 days (or even virtually for the next 1 hour).
And if a serious contender ends up in Yellow his team will work a little, but not a lot to stay there. If a team with no serious contender grabs Yellow yuo can bet they will work their butts off to stay there as long as possible.