photo credits @ ASO
Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) emerged victorious from a crash-marred stage 2 of the Tour de France today, fending-off a late surge from Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) to seize the sprint honors, while Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) rounded-out the podium.
As a result, Pedersen moved up into first place in the overall classification with a one second advantage over his teammate Yves Lampaert, while defending champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sits in third at eight seconds back.
Race Highlights
Magnus Cort (EF Education EasyPost), Sven Erik Bystrøm (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) and the B&B Hotels-KTM duo of Pierre Rolland and Cyril Barthe marked the day’s first breakaway effort, jettisoning the peloton at the outset of the stage.
From there, the quartet went on to establish a modest advantage of around three minutes, with Cort collecting the KOM points along the way.
Rolland and Barthe lost contact with their fellow escapees along the first climb of the day, while Cort later dropped back into the peloton with roughly 60 kilometers to go, leaving Bystrøm out front alone before he was reined in with 30 kilometers remaining.
A crash along the Great Belt Bridge ensnared Rigoberto Urán and rookie American rider Kevin Vermaerke. But, EF Education EasyPost quickly rallied around the Colombian rider to bring him back into the fold.
Not long after, a second crash plagued the peloton, this time claiming Lamapaert and his teammate Michael Mørkøv, subjecting both riders to a leg-sapping effort in order to regain contact with the group.
With 10 kilometers remaining, the peloton was all back together. But, just as tensions began to ease a huge crash brought dozens of riders down. Fortunately, the melee didn’t cost them any time.
Lampaert led the peloton into the final kilometer, while Van Aert was keen to latch onto Quick-Step’s slipstream.
Pedersen then gambled with a long early sprint, but the Danish rider was overhauled just meters from the line by Jakobsen, who lunged for victory at precisely the right moment to snatch the win.
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