photo credits @ Le Tour
After Jasper Philipsen’s success on day 1, Mathieu Van der Poel ruled an animated stage 2 to continue with Alpecin-Deceuninck’s dream start in this year’s Tour de France. The Flying Dutchman mastered an explosive finale in Boulogne-sur-Mer to get the better of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike). He also takes the Maillot Jaune, just like he did in 2021 when he won stage 2 in Mûr-de-Bretagne. Philipsen lost 31’’ on the day. But he’ll have another chance to win on day 3, as the sprinters eye victory on a mostly flat stage towards Dunkirk.
The 182-man peloton gather in Lauwin-Planque for a rainy start of stage 2, with Yevgeniy Fedorov (XDS-Astana) being the first rider to break away from the peloton during the first kilometer, a move that was quickly followed by Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Brent Van Moer (Lotto) and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R).
However, their escape effort was momentarily disrupted by a crash, which brought down the Norwegian and Kazakh national champions, while Leknessund took the first KOM point of the day on the Côte de Cavon-Saint-Martin.
The quartet continued work well together as the peloton began closing in during the last 90 kilometers, later reducing the breakaway’s advantage to less than a minute with 65 kilometers to go.
With 52 kilometers to go, the intensity picked up again as the riders approached the final climbs of the day, with Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) setting the pace at the bottom of the Côte du Haut Pichot.
Shortly thereafter, Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) upped the ante, later exploding the peloton on the Côte d’Outreau, with Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) further accelerating the pace before Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) attacked towards the summit.
From there, a flurry of attacks ensued, but Mathieu Van der Poel managed to controls things before unleashing his winning move to take Maillot Jaune.
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