The 2nd stage of the Tour de France will not take the riders back to France yet. The route will be almost circular as Seraing is only a few kilometers to the west of Liege. The riders will follow a loop that resembles the Liege - Bastogne - Liege but obviously, today's stage will not be as hard by any means. Nevertheless, the stage finishes in a 3.4 kilometers long climb averaging 4.8%, which should make it too difficult for the sprinters to fight for the stage. Gaps will be difficult to open among the favorites for the GC and the fight for the stage should be reduced to the final kilometers.
The early break was rather small as only 3 riders were ahead at the Cote de Francochamps, the second climb of the day. They were Gregory Rast (Orica), Chris Anker Sorensen (Tinkoff) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Lampre). There had been a bigger group but they were chased down by the peloton for many kilometers, an unlikely sight at the first week of the Tour. Sorensen was first at the top, which was important as the first KoM jersey was being awarded today. Meanwhile, Luka Mezgec was trying to bridge the gap but was still 2' 10'' behind, while the peloton was 3 minutes behind the leaders with 143 kilometers to go.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Erezee, 74 kilometers from the finish line. The sprinters only had these points to fight for today and Ben Swift (Vacansoleil) was the quickest in the peloton ahead of Mark Renshaw (BMC) and Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel). They would still be far from the leaders in the point's jersey at the end of the stage but there are quite a few mass sprints to be held in the first week. Meanwhile, the gap to the front group was 4' 20''. Lotto was the only team trying to set a pace but the gap was manageable for the bunch.
The break had disintegrated by the time they reached the last little hill before the finish line in Seraing. Gregory Rast and Luka Mezgec had attacked from the group and Chris Anker Sorensen was chasing 20 seconds behind. However, they still had 26 kilometers to go and there were many flat kilometers before the finish line. Lotto had as many as 5 riders committed to the chase but it was also BMC helping during the last few kilometers. The group was only 1' 45'' behind. The only rider to try an attack had been Davide Rebellin (Astana) but he would not be allowed to open a gap.
Gregory Rast and Luka Mezgec were still ahead with 9 kilometers to go but their gap was only 25 seconds and the flat section before the climb to Seraing was killing them even though they are good riders in the flat. BMC had clearly taken the responsibility to chase with Tom Boonen (BMC), Filippo Pozzato (BMC) and Franco Pellizotti (BMC) at the front. It was very difficult to predict the final outcome of the stage but there were only around 100 riders in the bunch as many had chosen to have an easier finish of the stage in the last few hills, most notably Lloyd Mondory (Etixx).
The riders from the break were finally caught shortly before the turn right towards Seraing. It was Rohan Dennis (Lotto) who took the lead of the bunch as the group started to climb towards the finish line. He was wearing the white jersey after the prologue. They were 3 kilometers from the finish line and about to hit the most difficult section of the climb, with slopes around 9%. There will also be a fight for the bonus seconds as the yellow jersey may still change hands in the first few stages given the small gaps after the opening stage.
The riders from Lotto were still leading the way as the riders got close to the last kilometers of the stage. There had been no attempts to attack in the hardest part of the climb, which was quite surprising. The most relevant move was happening on the right-hand side of the road as Andy Schleck (Vacansoleil) was opening the way for Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) to make progress. Joost van Leijen (Giant) was also very close and he was a very dangerous rider in this kind of finish. Other riders close to the front to take into account were Davide Rebellin, Simon Gerrans (Trek) and Enrico Gasparotto (Etixx).
Rob Ruijgh (Lotto) was still leading the way with 600 meters to go but Joost van Leijen was already about to get to the front of the race. The Giant rider is quite fast in these uphill finishes and even won a flat sprint in the last Vuelta a España. Tony Martin was still holding on among the best but he was expected not to be in the mix for the win as he lacks speed in his sprints. Among the riders that could take the win away from Van Leijen we could see the Italians Davide Rebellin and Rinaldo Nocentini (Euskaltel). Nevertheless, there were may riders still in the mix and the final meters were still uphill.
Joost van Leijen wins in Seraing! The Giant team probably justified their presence in the Tour de France already after this win in the first long stage of the Tour. The Dutch took the front of the sprint with 500 meters to go and no rider was able to come close as he added his second win of the season. Van Leijen does not win much but his previous win this year was the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. The second position in the stage was for a rider that also enjoys the uphill finishes that are not too hard like Simon Gerrans, while Bauke Mollema, Rinaldo Nocentini and Tony Martin completed the top 5.
It was a very good defence of the yellow jersey by Martin, who has 2 French rivals on the same time as him and that are willing to take over the yellow jersey as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the fact that the Lotto team is very strong has helped him considerably in the stage races this year. Nevertheless, it was a bit disappointing to see riders like Lloyd Mondory take it easy and not fight for the stage today. Tomorrow should be a clearer opportunity for the sprinters as the stage is essentially flat. The Belgians have not been able to win in home soil during the Tour so far and they should be in the mix as well.
The race will take the riders from the border of Belgium with the Netherlands to the border of Belgium with France. Tournai is only a few kilometers away from Roubaix but there will be no cobbles in this stage, which is completely flat and destined to be resolved in a mass sprint. It is the first opportunity for the sprinters in the Tour de France but they will have many more chances before we hit the mountains on the 8th stage. The only difficulty of the race will be the Cote de Namur, which takes the riders to the top of the famous Citadelle.
It did not take a lot of effort to form the break of the day as there were not that many riders interested in joining. Only 4 riders were at the front as they climbed the Cote de Namur: Richie Porte (Movistar), Luke Durbridge (Cofidis), Martin Elmiger (Orica) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre). Ulissi took the points at the top but he was far from the leader in the KoM classification, Chris Anker Sorensen (Tinkoff). They had a big gap of 8' 30'' but the peloton was not in a rush to try to bring them back. The team most interested in controlling the pace was Astana but they were not really chasing.
The intermediate sprint was not long after the climb in Namur. It was placed in Sombreffe, with 98 kilometers to go. The fastest rider in the sprint was Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) ahead of Marcel Kittel (Astana) and Ben Swift (Vacansoleil). Mondory is wearing his national champion jersey for the first time and what a better race for him than the Tour de France. The gap to the break had dropped considerably to 4' 45'' in the last few kilometers as the teams of the sprinters were preparing for the intermediate sprint. It was a difficult day for the riders in the break.
Luke Durbridge and Martin Elmiger were the last members of the break to be reeled back in with 13 kilometers to go. It had been a very tough day for them as the head wind prevented them from putting the peloton in difficulties. It also made many riders in the bunch enjoy the day as they had to do very little effort even in a stage more than 200 kilometers long. However, they should be careful in the last kilometers as many riders would be feeling strong and crashes may happen. The peloton was led by Matteo Trentin (Astana) and Davide Rebellin (Astana) at that stage.
Astana had the whole team at the front of the pack during the last kilometers and with 3 kilometers to go they were the only team to set up a sprint train. Grega Bole (Astana) was leading the way with Andrea Guardini (Astana) ready to be the last lead out man for Marcel Kittel. The rest of the sprinters were lining up right behind with Lloyd Mondory, Andre Greipel (Lotto) and Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL) at the best positions ahead of the sprint. There were sprinters that were caught really bad positioned, like Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) and Ben Swift.
Andrea Guardini was still leading Marcel Kittel as they closed in to the last kilometer of the stage. The Italian was doing a perfect job and the Astana team in general proved to be quite strong. It was surprising that no one tried a late attack but the pace must be really hard at the front. It was so fast that the peloton seemed to be breaking at some points. Lloyd Mondory, Andre Greipel and Kenny van Hummel still held the best positions behind Kittel. Meanwhile, we could also see another of the favorites, Mark Renshaw (BMC), too far from the front of the race.
Marcel Kittel was a bit slow to start the final sprint and with 600 meters to go it was Kenny van Hummel at the front of the sprint almost on par with Andre Greipel. Kittel was starting to react but he was going to run out of space to recover as they started the final sprint quite late. Among those that were trying to match the 3 sprinters at the front we could also see the French Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) and Lloyd Mondory although they seemed a bit too far behind to fight for the win in this 3rd stage of the Tour de France.
Nacer Bouhanni wins in Tournai! The French was really fast in the final sprint as he gained plenty of positions in the last few meters of the stage to end up taking his first win of the season. His performance was so good that there are doubts as to how well other riders sprinted but he must have taken advantage of tows to win from that far behind. The second place went to Kenny van Hummel, who has already taken 3 wins this season and will be keen to add in this Tour, while the top 5 was completed by Andre Greipel, Marcel Kittel and Tyler Farrar (Tinkoff).
We mentioned that the peloton seemed about to break into pieces as it was very stretched and there must have been some kind of incident that caught riders like Jerome Coppel (Etixx), Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel), Marco Pinotti (Sky) or Cadel Evans (Lotto) behind. They lost 1' 46'' as a result, which is going to severely hurt their chances of a good final result in Paris. The favorites for the GC have to be very concentrated as any minor issue like today can result in time losses that make a difference in the GC. This is even true in quiet stages like today.
The 4th stage in the Tour de France is probably trickier than what it seems in the profile. The first part of the stage is completely flat and should pose no threat but the second part is plagued of short but steep climbs and the sprinters should not have a chance to make it to the finish line. To discourage them, the finish line in Boulogne-sur-Mer is at the top of a 700 meters climb with gradients above 10%. At 197 kilometers it will be interesting what type of rider will take the win but the puncheurs should have a slight edge given the final meters of the stage.
The break of the day was quite small so it should not be a big deal for the peloton. The 4 riders at the front were Gregory Rast (Orica), Andy Schleck (Vacansoleil), Mauro Santambrogio (Sky) and Christophe Riblon (Cofidis). At the intermediate sprint in Senleques they had a gap of 5' 30'' over the bunch with 77 kilometers to go. The interesting fact of the day was that there were strong winds and they had already caused echelons early on the day. However, no favorites had been caught. John Degenkolb (HTC) was the most important rider in the group behind
Lotto started to pick up the pace more seriously with 34 kilometers to go, in the climb to the Cote de Mont Violette, a 3rd category climb. Rohan Dennis (Lotto) and Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lotto) were leading the group at the top. All of the favorites were at the group but Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale) had suffered a puncture when the race was already on and his team had had to chase hard to bring him back in. Meanwhile, the break was still 3' 20'' ahead of the bunch and Gregory Rast had tied with Chris Anker Sorensen (Tinkoff) as the leader of the KoM classification.
There was a break in the main group at the top of the previous hill and it caught Tejay van Garderen (Trek), Chris Froome (Lampre) and Andrew Talansky (HTC) behind. At the Cote de Herquelingue they were losing 2' 20'' against the group of the leader, where Lotto and BMC were giving their all to try to put as much time as possible on the chasers. Froome did not have good teammates to chase but the Trek and HTC riders should present a battle in the hilly terrain. The break was still ahead but their gap was quite small and with 17 kilometers remaining they did not have many chances of making it to the finish line.
An attack from Davide Rebellin (Astana), Rein Taaramae (Katusha) and Joost van Leijen (Giant) only served to catch the early break with 12 kilometers to go. The terrain in the surroundings of Boulogne-sur-Mer was very hilly and there were no flat section in this final part of the stage. The group at the front had a very good pace compared to that of the chasers and the gap had grown to 3' 20''. Trek should have thought of stopping Simon Gerrans (Trek) to collaborate because Tejay van Garderen could well lose his options in the GC today.
The last climb of the day was the Cote du Mont Lambert, which top was only 6 kilometers from the finish line. Davide Rebellin was first at the top closely followed by Peter Stetina (BMC) after the group decreased the pace in the climb. Pieter Weening (Tinkoff) was also trying to join but the Dutch was 20 seconds behind, while the group of the leader was 30 seconds behind the leader. Considering that a couple of kilometers would be downhill it could well be a gap that gave them the stage win. Meanwhile, the chasers were 3' 30'' behind and their gap seemed to be growing with no end.
Davide Rebellin and Peter Stetina could not make the move stick and with 2 kilometers to go a group of 40 riders looked set to fight for the stage win at the uphill finish in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Rebellin would be among the favorites but he probably spent his bullet in that attack. Joost van Leijen is still in the group and should be one of the favorites but the riders that play for the GC should also have something to say. Beñat Intxausti (Discovery) was leading the group with 2 kilometers to go as the American team could fight for the stage and the yellow jersey with Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery).
Tony Martin (Lotto) launched the first attack in the uphill finish to try to surprise the rest of the favorites. He was not expected to attack in this finish, where he was expected to struggle to keep the yellow jersey. He was dragging Peter Stetina and Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) on his wheel but other riders like Cadel Evans (Lotto), Joost van Leijen and Rob Ruijgh (Lotto) were also close to the German. It was a very difficult outcome to predict and it seemed like they had a headwind during the climb. Anyone could still take the win with 600 meters to go.
Tony Martin wins in Boulogne-sur-Mer! This is a major surprise in the 4th stage of the Tour de France as Martin not only keeps the yellow jersey but wins the stage in a hilly last kilometers. It may well be that the strong winds that we had the whole day favored him in the flat as he could save a lot more energy than the puncheurs but it is still quite surprising that he won and put 9 seconds over the rest of the favorites. Another German took the second place, Stefan Schumacher (HTC), in a very good display in the uphill finish. The top 5 was completed by Laurens Ten Dam, Hubert Dupont (Euskaltel) and Joost van Leijen.
Meanwhile, Tejay van Garderen's group lost 3' 22'' at the finish line and that hurts his chances a lot along those that Chris Froome and Andrew Talansky had of a good GC. It was not even the pace that caused them to fall behind but the fact that they were not properly positioned in a key section of the stage. By the time their teams organized themselves to chase it was already too late and the gap kept growing slowly until the finish line. In principle, there will be a few stages that should allow the favorites to relax before we hit the mountains.
Great stage and a surprise winner. Go Tony Martin! A number of pre-race favourites have already lost time, should make things even more exciting in the mountains.
Joost van Leijen has been one of the sensations of the season so far. The Giant rider has had a great season up to the Tour de France and given his performance so far at the start of the race it is quite likely that his form will continue. It is not by chance that he has already won the Liege - Bastogne - Liege and a stage in the Tour de France in 2017 as he has already been giving warnings during his career. Nevertheless, he had always been a rider that shone brightly in some races and then disappeared for the rest of the season.
The key exponent of those performances was his win at the 2010 World Championship after a very poor season otherwise when his best performance had been a 7th place at Plouay. After quite a few seasons in Rabobank and later in Vacansoleil his peak of form came as Giant trusted him to be his leader in their first season as a World Tour team. He repaid the team with a very good season including the win in the Amstel Gold Race and a stage win at the Vuelta a España. Nevertheless, the team was not strong enough to hold their position at the top flight and in 2017 they returned to being a Pro Continental team.
The fact that Giant are a Pro Continental team makes his performances even more valuable because even though other good riders like Sylvain Chavanel and Wilco Kelderman are also in the team, the average domestique is well weaker than what a World Tour team can offer. Having said that, they are a much more rounded team than other Pro Continental squads and the proof is that in July they have all but guaranteed themselves a place in the World Tour for the following season. Their experience in 2016 should give them a much better chance of staying at the top this time around.
Van Leijen has another year in his contract with Giant and that means that he will return to the World Tour. However, he is not getting any younger and he should be getting as many good results as he can before he is past his prime. Also, if he could help Giant consolidate in the World Tour he would be a well loved rider for many years to come.
The opening stages in this Tour de France were quite varied but we enter three stages during the first week that are meant to be decided in a mass sprint as they should not pose any difficulty for the sprinters. The first of those will take the riders west towards Rouen, a town close to the river mouth of the Seine. There are 4 categorised climb along the route but all of them are 4th category and a few of them do not even deserve that classification. The only difficulty of the stage will be the 214 kilometers that the cyclists will have to ride.
The break of the day was quite small as only 3 riders made it to the front group: Luke Rowe (HTC), Geraint Thomas (Tinkoff) and Samuel Dumoulin (Orica). At the second categorised climb of the day, the Cote de Dieppe, they had already built a gap of 8 minutes over the bunch. Geraint Thomas had already taken the points in the first KoM sprint and did it again in that climb. With 135 kilometers to go the bunch was taking it easy under a heavy rain with teams like Discovery, Astana and Euskaltel present at the front but not really chasing.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Fecamp, a town on the shore of the English Channel 76 kilometers to the finish line. The pace had increased considerably in the peloton and at the sprint it was Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) who took the points ahead of Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) and Marcel Kittel (Astana). The gap to the break had decreased to 4' 15'' so the peloton had the situation completely under control. It looked like a relatively easy stage for the favorites to the GC as they were not having to waste any energies hidden in the peloton.
Luke Rowe was trying to give the break a lifeline with 11 kilometers to go but it was a hopeless effort as the break was about to be reeled back in. It was Jos van Emden (Etixx), Tim Wellens (Etixx) and Matteo Trentin (Astana) leading the way in the bunch and they did not have any trouble to catch them back. Nevertheless, there was a small hill at the entrance to Rouen and there was always a chance of a rider trying to break away at that point. Meanwhile, we could see Marcel Kittel in the green jersey and Lloyd Mondory in the French national suit positioning themselves ahead of the sprint.
Grega Bole (Astana) was leading the group on the short descent towards Rouen and it looked like it would be Astana again who took the responsibility to do the preparation for the final sprint. Andrea Guardini (Astana) was second in the line and would be the last rider to launch Marcel Kittel. Right behind Kittel we could see some of the favorites for the win, like Lloyd Mondory, Andre Greipel (Lotto) and Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r). On the other hand, Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) will not be fighting for the stage as he crashed with 6 kilometers to go and could not recover fast enough to join the final sprint.
Astana did a great job for Marcel Kittel again and as they got close to the last kilometer of the stage Andrea Guardini was still leading him in the best position. The Kazakh team will be hoping that the German will be able to deliver a win this time around. The peloton was really stretched towards the front and that left a few riders quite far behind to be able to sprint properly. Among those we could see Alexander Kristoff, Mark Renshaw (BMC) and Ben Swift. Kristoff and Renshaw already did something similar in Tournai and could not fight for the win in the end.
Marcel Kittel was again waiting too long to start his sprint and with 600 meters to go was still hiding behind Andrea Guardini. However, the Italian was clearly too tired at that stage and other sprinters, like Nacer Bouhanni and Andre Greipel, had already started their rush to the line. Lloyd Mondory was still 3rd in the line and seemed to be waiting for Kittel to make a move but they were starting to run out of space to accelerate. Another rider that was making big progress from behind was Mark Cavendish (IAM) and could join the fight for the stage.
Nacer Bouhanni wins in Rouen! It was another great sprint for the French, who had already hinted at the start of the season that he was making progress towards joining the best sprinters in the World. The two stages that he has won so far in the Tour will likely make him a much more tracked wheel from now onwards. However, the best sprinting today came from Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL), who took the 2nd place even though he was way too badly positioned. Mark Cavendish was 3rd, followed by Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel to complete the top 5.
The news on the GC came from the fact that there was another gap in the middle of the bunch and many among the favorites lost 1 minute against the leader. The group included riders like Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale), Tejay van Garderen (Trek), Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) and Cadel Evans (Lotto). The favorites need to be much more aware when it comes to positioning themselves ahead of the sprint as these time losses will be very difficult to recover in the time trials or the mountains. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery) will be very happy with the way things are going for him.
There is not that much to say about today's stage between Rouen and Saint-Quentin. It is as straight-forward as a flat stage in the first week of the Tour de France can be. There is not even a climb worth of a 4th category climb as the 197 kilometers that take the riders to the finish line are predominantly flat. The riders will change direction today and will head east, riding back almost on their way towards the Vosges, where the first mountain-top of the Tour will take place this year. Nevertheless, the sprinters will be on the spotlight today and the climbers will have their chance in a few days.
The break of the day took no tie to settle at the front as it was the first attack, almost inside Rouen that succeeded. It was formed by 4 riders: Joost van Leijen (Giant), Richie Porte (Movistar), Diego Ulissi (Lampre) and Mauro Santambrogio (Sky). With 130 kilometers to go they had built a gap of 7' 15'' ahead of the main bunch but there was no intention yet to set up a chase. In a stage with no difficulties and a nice weather it was not expected for the break to cause any trouble once the teams of the sprinters got organized.
At the intermediate sprint in Breteuil, Lloyd Mondory (Etixx) was the fastest ahead of Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) and Marcel Kittel (Astana). The pace had increased quite a bit in the bunch as the sprint for the points was set up and that meant that the gap for the early break had come down to 5 minutes. The riders in the break had little hope as the last 80 kilometers of the stage were completely flat and the peloton would have it easy to get organised. It was an easy day for the favorites except Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) who crashed earlier in the stage and had to be helped by his teammates back in the group.
As expected, the peloton was about to swallow the break with 10 kilometers to go. Joost van Leijen was still trying to push on a bit longer but several teams were chasing and the gap was only 30 seconds. Those leading the bunch were Matteo Trentin (Astana), Tim Wellens (Etixx) and Jerome Coppel (Etixx). It was surprising that the French was helping at the front but they must have been very confident of the options that Lloyd Mondory had in the sprint. Meanwhile, all of the important sprinters were starting to position themselves ahead of the last kilometers.
In a change of scenario compared to previous days sprints there were 2 sprint trains being set up with 3 kilometers to go. Etixx had Michael van Staeyen (Etixx) ready to work for Lloyd Mondory, who had Tyler Farrar (Tinkoff) well positioned on his wheel. To their right it was again Andrea Guardini (Astana) leading Marcel Kittel towards the final sprint. This time around it was Andre Greipel (Lotto) who was behind Kittel. We could also see Fran Ventoso (Movistar), Ben Swift (Vacansoleil) and Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL) very close to the front. On the other hand, Mark Renshaw (BMC) was again really far from the front.
Marcel Kittel should really be grateful of having Andrea Guardini with him as the Italian again took him perfectly positioned for the final sprint. Michael van Staeyen could not deliver for Lloyd Mondory to that extent but the French was still in for the stage win with 1 kilometer to go. This was a terrain that could not be considered a climb but had a slight uphill gradient until the 1 kilometer mark. The rider that was making good progress was Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r). The French had already won 2 stages and was looking for a third. Meanwhile, a crash a bit behind in the bunch caught at least Marco Pinotti (Sky), who was complaining on the ground with an injury that did not look good.
It looked like Alexander Kristoff was not particularly well positioned before the sprint started but he appeared from nowhere to get the lead of the sprint with 600 meters to go. He had overtaken Nacer Bouhanni last as the French did not seem to have the same kind of legs that he had in previous days. Andre Greipel was also close to the front, while Mark Renshaw had gained a lot of positions taking Kristoff's tow. On the other hand, both Lloyd Mondory and Marcel Kittel were not having a good performance even though they enjoyed pretty good lead outs.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Saint-Quentin! The Euskaltel rider took his 5th win of the year after narrowly beating Marcel Kittel in what turned out to be a very close sprint for the line. Kristoff made a lot of progress in the slightly uphill section and even though he started his final sprint really early he held behind a very fast finishing Kittel. The German took the second place but seemed to calibrate much better than in previous days where to start his sprint. However, given the very good lead outs he is enjoying it is about time he gets a win.
Right behind Kittel, the third position went to Mark Renshaw, who would have been much better off had he been better positioned. The top 5 was completed by Lloyd Mondory and Fran Ventoso. There were no changes to the GC today but the bad news came from Marco Pinotti. The Sky rider crashed within the last 2 kilometers and had to abandon the race as a result of the injuries he suffered. The Italian was meant to be one of the strongest candidate for the final podium in Paris so it is a shame to lose him in this way. The stage tomorrow will be the last chance for the sprinters in a few days as the mountains are coming up next.
