2019 Tour de France: Stage 2 preview
Sunday, July 7 2019: Brussels (TTT), 27km
Stage 2: Brussels
Date: July 7, 2019
Distance: 27km
Stage type: Team Time Trial
The Tour's racing director Thierry Gouvenou has suggested that if the conditions are right this 27-kilometre team time trial course could produce a new record speed for a stage of this kind, improving on the 57.841km/h average set by Orica-GreenEdge when they won over 25km in Nice during the 2013 event. Featuring plenty of long straights, just a handful of tight turns where the eight-rider teams will have to ease off on the gas for a few moments, and barely any climbing of note, it promises to be as tightly contested as last year's contest in Cholet, where five teams finished within 11 seconds of each other at the top of the leaderboard, BMC taking the spoils with a margin of four seconds over Sky and seven over QuickStep.
Starting outside the magnificent Palais Royal, the course heads east towards Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, then tracks into the southern suburbs of the city, before turning north to bisect the Belgian capital in order to reach the finish adjacent to the Atomium. A yellow jersey adorned with an image of a young Eddy Merckx will be presented here to what is likely to be a new wearer, perhaps from one of the teams that has this jersey as its ultimate target when the race reaches Paris in three weeks’ time.
Ineos, Sunweb, Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma should all be in the frame, but racing on home terrain with the crowd and great form to motivate them, Deceuninck could be the outfit to beat. Their 2018 King of the Mountains winner Julian Alaphilippe has acknowledged that the prospect of him being in yellow at this early point in the Tour has crossed his mind, and those teams with longer-term objectives won’t be too disappointed if the Frenchman or one of his teammates carries the pressure of the yellow jersey for a few days.
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets
After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59
Join now for unlimited access
Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Most Popular
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
'Walk first, ride indoors and then on the road' - Jonas Vingegaard's road to recovery after Itzulia crash
'In two weeks, we'll know what is possible' - Visma DS Frans Maassen on Dane's chances of riding the Tour de France -
'It was the same colour as the road' - Harper, O'Connor crash into kerb at Tour of the Alps
Jayco AlUla rider forced to abandon as Australians duo go down in high-speed descent of Passo del Vetriolo -
New Time XPro SL becomes the priciest pedal ever as brand overhauls range
The titanium, carbon, ceramic pedal is the lightest on the market, but boy is it expensive -
Tour of the Alps: Simon Carr wins stage 4 as Juan Pedro López responds to GC attacks
Chris Harper crashes out on first big mountain stage