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TdF stage 2 report: Back-to-back French stage wins as Vauquelin makes history for his team

As the breakaway took the stage win, the GC favourites also had their fun with Tadej Pogačar taking over the yellow jersey.

Kit Nicholson
by Kit Nicholson 30.06.2024 Photography by
Gruber Images and Cor Vos
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Stage 2 went the way of the breakaway again, with debutant Kévin Vauquelin taking a historic first Tour de France stage win for Arkéa-B&B Hotels. That also marks two wins for France in as many days for the first time in over 50 years (the two first stages).

There was also action in the fight for yellow as Tadej Pogačar put in a trademark stinging attack on the Côte de San Luca climb, and defending Tour champion Jonas Vingegaard was the only rider able to follow, reassuring all who wondered as to the Dane’s form post-horror crash. The pair rode away from the GC group which had already been shredded on the steep gradients – Primož Roglič for one was caught in a split – as Remco Evenepoel and Richard Carapaz chased fiercely between them and the yellow jersey group.

In the end Carapaz, Evenepoel, Vingegaard and Pogačar all crossed the line on the same time, but with Romain Bardet in the main group 21 seconds down, Pogačar finds himself in the yellow jersey already (despite having dropped to the back of his group as they crossed the line).

Jonas Vingegaard glued to Tadej Pogačar's wheel during stage 1 of the 2024 Tour de France.
Inseparable.
Pogačar launches and Vingegaard reacts.

Stage 2 Top 10

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Frank van den Broek, Romain Bardet and Jonas Abrahamsen wearing the green, yellow and polkadot jerseys respectively at the start of the stage 2 of the 2024 Tour de France.
The three classification leaders at the start of stage 2: Frank van den Broek in the green points jersey (he also owned the white jersey of best young rider, which was being looked after by Maxim van Gils), Romain Bardet in the yellow of race leader, and Jonas Abrahamsen rocking the polkadots head to toe – even his Dare VA-AFO frame was sporting spotted decals. The Norwegian successfully made it into the breakaway for the second day, and set about greedily hoovering up points in both the mountains and green jersey competitions. He ended stage 2 as the leader in both.

Quotes of the day

It was really hard for me but I’m really happy. I had a perfect day out in the breakaway. I have to thank Christian [Rodríguez] for his role in the way he helped me get through to win the stage. He put me in the perfect position and I knew I was going to be able to attack … I wanted to take part in the Tour, that was the original dream. To now win a stage in it, well that’s amazing and for the team as well – it just makes me incredibly happy.”

Kévin Vauquelin said, celebrating the biggest win of his career so far.

I think I can be very happy with how everything went today – yesterday [too], of course, but especially today – that I was able to follow Tadej on the second climb of San Luca, because yeah, I think this is probably one of the stages we feared the most or actually expected we could lose time because of my preparation. That’s honestly speaking that I didn’t have a good preparation for this race. We only had one and a half months and I think I can be super happy.”

Jonas Vingegaard said at the finish of stage 2, now sitting third overall.

Brief analysis

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