At 166km, the 2nd stage of le Tour is far from being one of the longest of the first week but it has an uphill slope to the finish in Mur de Bretagne which will provide the first opportunity for the Puncheurs and GC riders to go for the Yellow Jersey. Whoever is wearing the Maillot Jaune after today may just hold onto it for quite a few days. After the disappointment of yesterday, Demare will hope to do better today.
Again, a rather small breakaway today of Tesfaye Heyi, Omarsson and Turek. The Peloton shutting down all other attempts to bridge the gap to this trio. As such, with 140km to go the gap is only 1'35.
100km now to go and no further action. The gap is 3'05.
Tesfaye Heyi wins the only KOM sprint of the day. Omarsson is 2nd.
A number of teams have riders at the front of the Peloton controlling the pace. The gap is only 2'25 with 75km to go. 13km to the intermediate sprint.
Omarsson wins the intermediate sprint.
Yesterday's stage winner, Kameraj, and Demare are the only 2 who appear to be interested in scrapping for a couple points.
It's 2 for Demare and 1 for Kamberaj.
Our 3 leaders will need to pick up the pace as the gap is 1'28 with 40km to the finish.
Less than 20km now to go and the breakaway is well within sight.
The catch is made with 16km to go. We will now follow what is guaranteed to be an interesting run in to the finish.
The Peloton comes through 5km to go and no action just yet but we are about to start the final ascent up to the line.
3km to go and the climb to the line begins! Who will be the first to kick-off?
2km now and Mager heads the Peloton but he seems to have forgotten his team leader who isn't in the first 15 riders on the road. Directly on his wheel though are Bobridge and Chernetskiy.
Under 1km and Bobridge launches on his own! He could well hold off the charge from behind with the strength he has!
300m for Bobridge but he may have miscalculated his efforts. Mohoric is flying up on the left with Vakoc just behind. On the right is Demare who had to come from deep but is moving at speed!
But these 3 hit the same wall as Bobridge who ends up taking a comfortable stage win!!
Mohoric is 2nd ahead of Demare. Both riders could well have taken a stage win if their positioning was better into the final kilometers. A time gap of 8 seconds given to the Australian.
Vakoc just holds off Ackermann for 4th.
Sepulveda is 6th ahead of Bettiol, Benoot, Boonrata and Bratashcuk who rounds out the Top 10.
Kamberaj may not have been expecting to hold onto the GC lead but he does just that.
Kamberaj still leads the Points Classification. 17 points to Demare in 2nd. Bobridge picked up 6 points with his stage win to be the KOM leader. Steimle leads the U25s. Project: Africa lead the Teams.
le Tour de France - Stage 2 Report 
