Tadej Pogacar threw down the gauntlet to defending Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard, attacking within the hills ringing Bologna, to take the yellow jersey on stage two of the 2024 race.
“It was extra necessary to check myself [than Vingegaard],” Pogacar stated after taking the maillot jaune. “It’s good to be in yellow. You don’t say no to yellow.”
Solely Vingegaard may comply with the Giro d’Italia winner Pogacar’s violent acceleration, 11km from the end, on the second of two ascents of the galleried climb to San Luca’s basilica, overlooking the Italian metropolis.
As Pogacar continued the place he had left off through the Giro, any lingering doubts over Vingegaard’s race health have been dispelled when the Visma-Lease a Bike rider responded, with aplomb, to chase the Slovenian to the end.
The pair have been caught within the remaining few metres of the stage by fellow podium contenders Remco Evenepoel, of Soudal Fast-Step, and Richard Carapaz, of EF Training-EasyPost. All 4 are on the identical total time, however Pogacar claimed yellow by advantage of his larger stage placings.
In entrance of the pair, Kévin Vauquelin, driving for the Arkéa-B&B Accommodations staff, took the second French success of the weekend, successful the stage after transferring forward of the day’s breakaway within the closing kilometres.
“It was onerous for me, however I’m actually completely satisfied. I had an ideal time out within the breakaway,” Vauquelin stated, including he had not contemplated successful the stage till the final second. “I wished to participate within the Tour, that was the unique dream. To now win a stage in it – that’s superb and for the staff as properly. It simply makes me extremely completely satisfied.”
If the French have been swooning after a weekend of back-to-back wins, with the veteran Romain Bardet claiming the stage and total race lead on Saturday, there was disappointment too, because the dsm-firmenich PostNL rider let the yellow jersey slip by his fingers to the flying Pogacar.
Requested if he may have tried to win the stage, Pogacar stated: “On this warmth, it will be pointless to kill my teammates. Certain, we may go for the stage, but it surely may backfire sooner or later. We simply let there be a pure choice.”
Amongst others distanced by Pogacar and Vingegaard was Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers. Any ideas that the Welshman is likely to be the British staff’s Computer virus, went out the window on the second climb to the basilica, as he dropped again.
The stage is now set for a heavyweight battle between Pogacar and Vingegaard, with Evenepoel and Carapaz forged within the position of belowresearch, in Tuesday’s fourth day of racing to Valloire, over the two,642‑metre Col du Galibier.
Regardless of his spell in hospital after crashing on a high-speed descent in April, Vingegaard’s descending expertise appeared absolutely intact as he sped into Bologna in Pogacar’s wake. He’ll want them on Tuesday within the descent from the Galibier to the end line.
after e-newsletter promotion
Vingegaard’s resistance to Pogacar, lower than three months after being hospitalised for 12 days, has been a welcome balm to his Visma-Lease staff, who proceed to endure setbacks elsewhere.
The staff’s plan to have a completely liveried “information van” passing info to their managers and riders, with what they known as “a central assortment level of real-time information through the Tour,” was blocked by a pincer motion from the world governing physique, the UCI, and Tour organisers, ASO.
Behind the primary contenders, the cavalry continued, with Mark Cavendish once more struggling, though the scenes on Sunday have been much less torrid than on the opening stage on Saturday, when he vomited whereas driving.
It’s testomony to the issue of the brutal begin to this Tour, that the primary stage, wherein Cavendish described “seeing stars,” as he completed virtually 40 minutes behind winner Bardet, had historians thumbing the report books for the most important gaps on the Tour’s opening day.
On Sunday, Cavendish was shepherded by the rolling hills of Emilia Romagna, once more by 4 of his Astana Qazaqstan teammates. But it surely was a greater day for him, and regardless of ending 25 minutes behind Vauquelin, he was comfortably contained in the day’s time restrict.
Sandwiched between Bologna and the Galibier, the climb which offered the springboard for Marco Pantani’s Giro-Tour double in 1998, are the flat roads to the end of stage three in Turin. It’s right here, within the shadow of the Stadio Olimpico, that Cavendish will search to interrupt the stage win report he shares with Eddy Merckx.
With the cumulative fatigue of the Alpine climbs looming and the sprints extra aggressive than ever, Cavendish will realise there won’t be many higher possibilities. If he has recovered from the aftermath of Saturday’s misery, he’ll know that it’s time to seize the day.
Supply hyperlink
