Tadej Pogacar donned the yellow jersey as Kevin Vauquelin of France claimed victory in the second stage of the Tour de France.
Vauquelin secured his inaugural Grand Tour stage win after breaking away from the lead group, marking the Arkea-B&B Hotels rider as the second French stage winner of the 2024 race.
Pogacar, riding for UAE-Team Emirates, surged ahead on the final climb of the 199.2km stage to Bologna, Italy, with last year’s champion, Jonas Vingegaard, matching his pace.
Vingegaard, representing Visma-Lease a Bike, finished the stage alongside Pogacar. However, Pogacar took the yellow jersey due to his higher placement in the first stage.
When asked about his strategy, Pogacar stated: “No, because the breakaway was too hard and in this weather, this heat, it would be unnecessary to kill my team-mates. We just left it to natural selection and it was like this in the end. For sure to have gone for the stage win could have also backfired so we decided to be more calm and tranquil, but in the final I tried to test myself.”
Pogacar and Vingegaard, who have dominated the last four editions of La Grande Boucle, share the same overall time with Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-Quick Step and Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz of EF Education-EasyPost.
Primoz Roglic had a challenging day, losing 21 seconds to both Pogacar and Vingegaard, finishing in a 19-man group of general classification contenders.
Included in this group were Ineos Grenadiers’ Carlos Rodriguez, Egan Bernal, and Tom Pidcock, as well as Simon and Adam Yates and the previous stage winner, Romain Bardet.
Geraint Thomas, the 2018 champion, who is supporting Rodriguez and Bernal in this race, finished over four minutes behind the leaders.
The race continues on Monday with a 230.8km stage from Plaisance to Turin, anticipated to end in a sprint finish, presenting an opportunity for Mark Cavendish to secure his record 35th Tour stage win.
