Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard battled for Tour honours on Sunday’s longest day of the 112th Tour de France, Stage 2 from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Van der Poel had the power to outmuscle the world champion for his second Tour win. The Dutchman takes over the yellow jersey from teammate Jasper Philipsen. Pogačar will wear the polka dot jersey on Monday. Michael Woods was the top Canadian.
The Course
The complicate things for the sprinters, three of the four categorized climbs were in the final 30 km. None of this trio was longer than 1.1 km and none less steep than eight percent. There was even a climb to the line in Boulogne-sur-Mer. Early rain called for gilets, arm warmers and jackets.
Bruno Armirail went out on his second consecutive 112th Tour breakaway. By the time Armirail’s quartet arrived at Cat. 4 Côte de Cavron-Saint-Martin in the middle of the 209-km route, it was 2:30 ahead of the peloton. At the day’s intermediate sprint, Jonathan Milan was the fastest out of the peloton but he was furious with Girmay.
Steep Little Climb 1 was Côte du Haut Pichot, 1.1 km at nine percent. The breakaway had been corralled by then. Wout van Aert and Belgian champ Tim Wellens led the charge, with Vingegaard and Pogačar in tow. Woods occupied Position 10. Forty riders descended in the front, but their numbers swelled.
Côte de Saint-Étienne-au-Mont and Côte d’Outreau were in close proximity. On Saint-Étienne-au-Mont, van der Poel, Vingegaard and Pogačar pulled the string. Matteo Jorgenson’s pace created a sextet including Remco Evenepoel. Pogačar was first over to take over the KOM classification on the road.
The Pogačar-Vingegaard-MvdP nontet approached Côte d’Outreau just ahead of a chase with Roglič. Jhonatan Narváez pulled for teammate Pogačar, but it was Tour de Suisse runner-up Kévin Vauquelin who tipped over first. Vingegaard attacked over the top but his surge was parried.
Vauquelin and Jorgenson made a move. Alexey Lutsenko bridged over. João Almeida sewed up the tear. Florian Lipowitz bounced away, leading by three seconds under the red kite.
Almeida pulled it back together again when the road tilted up. Julian Alaphilippe made a feint with 600 metres remaining. Van der Poel went…
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