Cycling: Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) will swap his World Champion jersey for the yellow jersey on tomorrow's stage. The Slovak won the second stage of the 2016 Tour de France in a thrilling sprint Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx Quick Step). Breakaway Jasper Struyven (Trek-Segafredo) was only caught a few meters before the finish line. Mark Cavendish, who through his Victory on yesterday's opening stage was allowed to contest a Tour de France stage in the yellow jersey for the first time, had no chance when he arrived today.
Bora-Argon 18 again represented twice in the top group
Mostly in the rain, the 198 riders had to cover 183km from Saint-Lo to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin today. I didn't find this disturbing at all Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), because the wearer of the mountain jersey prefers bad weather. So he slipped into the top group of the day again together with his team colleague Cesare Benedetti. The mission was clear: the dotted jersey should be defended. The top group of four was completed by Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) and Vegard Breen (Fortuneo-Vital Concepts). Within the first 52 km there were three climbs in the fourth category, of which Vegard Breen won one and Jasper Struyven two. Jasper Struyven drew level with Paul Voss after mountain points. However, since there was still a third-category mountain to climb 1,5 km before the finish, the battle for the polka-dot jersey shouldn't be decided yet.
André Greipel again the fastest in the intermediate sprint
The peloton let the leading quartet pull away for around seven minutes. At the back, Mark Cavendish's Dimension Data team controlled the pace, although the prospects of a stage win and retention of the yellow jersey looked very unlikely. However, Evald Boasson Hagen is also part of the same team. The Norwegian was one of the favorites to be named for the day's win. Of course, the bad weather conditions meant that there were falls today as well. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) was one of those affected, along with Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange), Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step) and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida). Luckily all drivers were able to continue the race without injuries and reconnected. The intermediate sprint of the day took place with 75,5 km to go. Cesare Benedetti was given the points and the 1.500 euro bonus without a fight. The fight for fifth place was completely different. The top sprinters took part in the hunt for points, with André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) once again emerging as the winner. Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quick Step), Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) followed on the places.
The leading group made life difficult for the peloton
After the intermediate sprint, the peloton took it easy again and the Dimension Data team withdrew more and more. The drivers in the leading group saw their chance. Since no team in the peloton wanted to take responsibility, the lead remained constant. With 40 km to go, it was a whopping five minutes before several teams took the lead in the peloton, including IAM and Direct Energie. 25 km before the finish, with a lead of 3:35 minutes, Cesare Benedetti could no longer keep up with his competitors and had to let it drop. Meanwhile, in the main field, the class riders were slowly forming. Astana, BMC, Sky and Tinkoff were up front and kept up the pace, but there was no organized tracking work to be seen in the peloton. It wasn't until Team BMC were hard at work chasing Greg Van Avermaet that the breakaway's lead dropped to under three minutes with 20km to go. Within the last ten kilometers Jasper Stuyven attacked, who of course not only had the stage win in mind, but also wanted to win the last climb of the day. Neither Vegard Breen nor Paul Voss could follow, so that the top trio now became three lone fighters.
Kreuziger leads Sagan to victory and outperforms Contador
Four kilometers from the finish, Richie Porte (BMC) broke down and BMC pulled out of the lead. For a long time it looked like Jasper Struyven would win, but Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff) pulled Peter Sagan up the hill for the entire last kilometer and they grabbed the soloist a few hundred meters from the finish line. Peter Sagan was in the wind way too early, was caught by Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx Quick Step) oversprinted, but he countered the young Frenchman again in the last meters. Not only did Peter Sagan win the second stage of the Tour de France, he also took over the yellow jersey from Mark Cavendish. Curious: Sagan didn't celebrate as he assumed that there were still two or three drivers ahead of the field. In addition to the joy, there was also suffering in the Tinkoff team, because Alberto Contador lost almost a minute to the day's winner. The fact that the pace was kept so high by his two teammates, Kreuziger and Sagan, suggests that Contador has already signaled his weakness. Richie Porte was hit even harder. The BMC team captain lost about two minutes. As a result, two of the four top favorites for overall victory have already suffered severe setbacks. Jasper Struyven narrowly missed out on the day's win, but can console himself with the mountain jersey because he was able to secure the last mountain classification of the day ahead of the peloton.
Tour de France Stage #2 – Results of the day
Tour Locations | Driver | Country | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Peter Sagan | Slovakia | Tinkoff | 4:20:51 |
2. | Julian Alaphilippe | France | Etixx Quick Step | + 0: 00 |
3. | Alejandro Valverde | Spain | Movistar | + 0: 00 |
4. | Daniel Martin | Ireland | Etixx Quick Step | + 0: 00 |
5. | Michael Matthews | Australia | Orica Bike Exchange | + 0: 00 |
6. | wilco kelderman | Netherlands | LottoNL Jumbo | + 0: 00 |
7. | Tony gallopin | France | Lotto Soudal | + 0: 00 |
8. | greg van avermaet | Belgium | BMC | + 0: 00 |
9. | Build Mollema | Netherlands | Trek-Segafredo | + 0: 00 |
10. | Christopher Froome | Great Britain | Sky | + 0: 00 |
Tour de France Stage #2 – General Classification
Tour Locations | Driver | Country | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Peter Sagan | Slovakia | Tinkoff | 8:34:42 |
2. | Julian Alaphilippe | France | Etixx Quick Step | + 0: 08 |
3. | Alejandro Valverde | Spain | Movistar | + 0: 10 |
4. | Warren Barguil | France | Giant-Alpecin | + 0: 14 |
5. | Christopher Froome | Great Britain | Sky | + 0: 14 |
6. | greg van avermaet | Belgium | BMC | + 0: 14 |
7. | Nairo Quintana | Colombia | Movistar | + 0: 14 |
8. | Roman Crucifier | Czechia | Tinkoff | + 0: 14 |
9. | Simon Gerrans | Australia | Orica Bike Exchange | + 0: 14 |
10. | Daniel Martin | Ireland | Etixx Quick Step | + 0: 14 |
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