Welcome to the coverage of the second stage of the Tour de France. Today we have the first hilly stage, and we could even see some gaps in the finish. The GC riders will have to be very careful to avoid losing any valious time today. The stage should suit perfectly riders as Van Stayen or Demare, although the best puncheurs in the race, like Sagan or Lutsenko, could attack in the several hills on the final kms. Very open race today, in a day where the riders will have to do almost 200 km, from Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer
The riders are ready to start another day of racing!
30 km into the race and still no breakaway has been made... we have a crash, the first one of Tour de France! And is a really huge one... Let’s see which riders are in the ground
We only got some riders confirmed, but there are some big names, like Tenorio, Amador or Demare. We are waiting for confirmation on whether other riders are involved and if someone is really injured
We can’t have a full list of riders who crashed, but more or less these should be them
Tenorio, Amador, Demare, Cink, Haig, Pinot, Guldhammer, Dyrnes, Gallopin, Kung, Morizot, Reimer, Kunshin, Boeckmans, De Luna, Chernetskiy, Teuns, Samolenkov, Ben Youcek, Keinath and Copeland
All are very lucky, as no one has been forced to abandon the race. We’ll see later if any of those riders are injured, but at the moment the bunch has been splitted by the crash and only 80 riders are in front.
No team was willing to keep fighting for the breakaway with so many riders in the ground, so this four riders were allowed to brake clear from the bunch
Van der Haar Barbero Bekmanis Senyenov
This is kind of surprising. A mid-stage attack by Duchesne. I assume he’s trying to go for the KoM points to take the lead, but given the current gaps between breakaway and the bunch, chances they could be in front before the hills starts are very low, as with 90 km left the leading group only has 2 minutes on a bunch led by Festina, Moser and Pendleton’s riders.
Also, nice to see that everyone is back in the big group, including all those riders who crashed before
Barbero takes the first KoM of the day, a Cat.4 climb, ahead of Bekmanis, while Duschene hasn’t been able yet to join them
Col de l’Eperche - Cat.4
Barbero 5
Bekmanis 3
Van der Haar 1
Still 50 km to the end, but Festina has started to work really hard in the bunch, as Spilak must be feeling very good today, looking for a stage win and to gain some time on the other GC contenders. Duschene has already being caught, and the gap with the breakaway remains in 2 minutes
Oh no... that’s another crash in the bunch. Arndt, Cort Nielsen, Borges, Landa, Vinhas, Haig, Kangert, Felline, Dyrnes, Vasyliv and Nerz are the riders involved on it. With the most important part of the stage coming now, this is a very unfortunate moment to crash. Hopefully they are all ok and can re-join the main group soon
Jayco and Puma have sent riders to the back of the group to help their GC leaders, but it’s really surprising to see Demare helping Nerz now, as Demare should be one of the stage favourites. Really strange tacticts now by Puma.
Barbero keeps winning KoMs, thus moving into the provisional lead of KoM standings
Cote de Mont Violette - Cat.3
Barbero 6
Van der Haar 4
Senyenov 2
Several teams are fighting for the best places in the bunch before another climb with 20 km left, while the breakaway still keeps that gap of 2 minutes. Would be very surprising that they can make it to the end
This time Barbero wasn’t first in this Cat.4 climb, but Bekmanis was dropped on this climb, leaving only 3 riders in the front
Cote de Herquelingue - Cat.4
Van der Haar 5
Senyenov 3
Barbero 1
This is terrible... Tenorio is clearly injured and has been dropped from the bunch in a flat section. All his team-mates are waiting for him, but it’s useless now
Senyenov has attacked Barbero and Van der Haar is now alone in the head of the race with 14 km to go. He has a 20-second gap to the chasing duo and over 1’30 to the bunch, where no one has even tried anything
Sadly, Nerz is also injured and can’t follow the bunch anymore. As Tenorio, if they can survive the next days, they might be able to fight for stage win in the last week of the race. And really stupid tactics from Puma’s DS, as he has made Demare to wait for the German climber. What a wasted chance of taking the Yellow Jersey...
Only 7 km left in the stage, and the bunch is about to catch Van der Haar and Barbero. Senyenov is still in front with 40 seconds of advantage, but if as predicted, some riders attack in the final climb, he stands no chance to hold off the bunch
Senyenov is getting caught mid-climb, thanks to the work of two Wiesenhof’s domestiques. Swift is very-well placed in third place of the group, while Sagan looks ready to make his move for the stage win. Worthy remember that the final km has an average of 9%, so this might be the reason why all are waiting until the very end to attack
Sagan is on the move! And no one is able to follow the Slovak! From the top of this hill he has 6 km to the finish, and seeing how strong he has been this season, winning Badaling, Grand-Duche and Amstel, no one might stop him from winning
With 5 km left, only Lutsenko has tried to follow him, but the Kazakh still needs to reduce quite a gap to fight for the win. Half a minute behind Sagan, in a 30-rider group, Wiesenhof keeps working to avoid this riders to gain a lot of time, as they shouldn’t be important for GC.
Sagan and Lutsenko are defenitely the only riders fighting for the win today, but the question is if Lutsenko can do anything to avoid Sagan’s win
Under the Flamme Rouge, Lutsenko has finally caught Sagan, but he must have wasted more energies in the chase, and Sagan is much quicker in a sprint, despite this being a sprint over slopes of 10%. Both riders have a 40-second gap to the bunch, where all riders seems to be fighting on their own for the best positions in the group
Sagan is starting his sprint and has quickly left Lutsenko behind. The Slovak is going to get the win today, as also is going to become the new race leader
Peter Sagan wins in Boulogne-sur-Mer his first ever Tour de France stage! He attacked in the perfect place and only Lutsenko could barely follow him
Lutsenko takes the second place today, which is a good result for the winner of Paris-Nice earlier in the year, who finishes around 15 seconds later than Sagan
Very surprising result for Yates, who takes a stage podium in a stage that doesn’t suit him at all, even gaining some time on the rest of the GC contenders
Dekker finishes fourth, and might take a few extra seconds, while Haig, despite crashing twice today, beats riders as Lammertink and Spilak, who have finished right behind the young Aussie
Gesink, Phinney and Guldhammer round up the top10 of the stage, while we see riders as Van Stayen and Swift finish just outside top15, thus taking no points for the Points Jersey
Demare and Nerz have end up losing over 5 minutes, while Tenorio’s lose has gone higher than 8 minutes
Sagan goes to the podium to receive his first ever Maillot Jaune. He can retain tomorrow for sure, as he is again a favourite to win the stage in Mur de Bretagne, although that should be his last day in Yellow, as on Tuesday, we have a 30-km TT.
Sagan keeps proving he is one of the best puncheurs in the world, if not the best this season, taking the win in today’s stage ahead of Lutsenko. Yates gets some important seconds in his fight for the U25 Jersey and a top5 finish, while sadly two riders have to say goodbye to their GC hopes, as Tenorio and Nerz crashed earlier in the day and both are heavily injured.
