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Tour de France 2019: Stage 2

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 2 of the Tour de France. Today sees the riders take on a 27.6-kilometre team time trial, starting and finishing in Brussels, running from the Royal Palace in Brussels to the modernist landmark in the north, the Atomium.

 

Start list

Tour de France race hub

Tour de France team time trial preview & start times

Sagan vents frustration after second place in Tour de France opening sprint

Team Ineos to start first in Tour de France TTT following Geraint Thomas crash

 

 

We're under an hour from the start of stage 2, the first chance for a GC shakeup. It's the team time trial in Brussels.

Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) was a somewhat surprising winner of yesterday's opening stage, also in Brussels. His team will be one of the strongest today, but with a slender ten-second lead over the majority of the field, it might be a tough task to hang on for another day.

 

Jumbo-Visma will be up there though. Otherwise, Team Ineos, Mitchelton-Scott, EF Education First, Deceuninck-QuickStep and CCC Team are all expected to finish the day towards the top of the standings.

 

 

It's included in our preview, but here's a list of today's start times. Ineos set off first, while Jumbo start last, an hour and 45 minutes later. Each team sets off at five-minute intervals.



1 Team Ineos 14:30:00
2 Team Arkea-Samsic 14:35:00
3 Astana Pro Team 14:40:00
4 Groupama-FDJ 14:45:00
5 AG2R La Mondiale 14:50:00
6 Movistar Team 14:55:00
7 Total Direct Energie 15:00:00
8 CCC Team 15:05:00
9 UAE Emirates 15:10:00
10 Trek-Segafredo 15:15:00
11 Katusha-Alpecin 15:20:00
12 Cofidis Solutions Credits 15:25:00
13 Dimension Data 15:30:00
14 Team Sunweb 15:35:00
15 Bora-Hansgrohe 15:40:00
16 Lotto Soudal 15:45:00
17 Mitchelton-Scott 15:50:00
18 Bahrain-Merida 15:55:00
19 EF Education First 16:00:00
20 Deceuninck-QuickStep 16:05:00
21 Wanty-Gobert Cycling Team 16:10:00
22 Team Jumbo-Visma 16:15:00

Last year's TTT in Cholet was a little longer than today at 35.5km, and a little lumpier too. Over three minutes separated stage winners BMC and last place Cofidis, while the top five were spread over just 11 seconds.

 

Look for smaller gaps today and an average speed in the region of a 55kph for the top teams.

 

EF Education First might not quite be the TTT powerhouse they were in years past, but they should be one of the top teams on the road today nonetheless.

 

The US team boast a wealth of strong time trialists in their Tour team, including Rigoberto Urán, Tejay Van Garderen, Alberto Bettiol, Tanel Kangert and Sebastian Langeveld. Before the Tour, Cyclingnews visited their training camp in Girona as the team finalised their Tour roster and went through TTT tests.

 

How EF Education First selected their Tour de France team - Podcast

 

 

We're just over 15 minutes away from Ineos setting off on their effort now.

 

If you're searching for viewing options today then check out our guide on how to watch the Tour de France live and free from anywhere.

 

Report from Eurosport suggest that Astana's Jakob Fuglsang is suffering with his knee injury after yesterday's crash. He said that he isn't feeling much power from it.

 

Ineos are ready to set off. Five minutes to the start, they're gathered together, preparing to go to the start ramp.

 

And they're off. Ineos kick off stage 2.

 

Here's their team, the strongest-looking TTT squad on paper, with numerous former national TT champions.

 

Geraint Thomas
Egan Bernal
Jonathan Castroviejo
Michał Kwiatkowski
Gianni Moscon
Wout Poels
Luke Rowe
Dylan van Baarle

 

It looks like they're starting off well. Of course, beyond the eye test we don't have a clear idea of how fast they're going yet.

 

The checkpoints come at 13.2km and 20.1km today, so a while yet.

 

Arkéa-Samsic set off in their eyecatching all-white skinsuits. This is their team. It's safe to say not to expect too much from the French squad.

 

Warren Barguil
Maxime Bouet
Anthony Delaplace
Élie Gesbert
André Greipel
Kévin Ledanois
Amaël Moinard
Florian Vachon

 

Now it's Astana's turn to set off. It'll be interesting to see how Fuglsang is going after his crash.

 

Jakob Fuglsang
Pello Bilbao
Omar Fraile
Hugo Houle
Gorka Izagirre
Alexey Lutsenko
Magnus Cort
Luis León Sánchez

 

Brad Wiggins is back out on the moto for Eurosport. He says that Thomas is looking strong, and that Ineos are protecting Bernal – letting him take shorter turns. He's a strong time trialist but the likes of Thomas and Castroviejo have more experience in organising and racing a team in a TTT situation.

 

Groupama-FDJ are off now. They'll be looking to limit their losses for leader Thibaut Pinot today.

 

Thibaut Pinot
William Bonnet
David Gaudu
Stefan Küng
Matthieu Ladagnous
Rudy Molard
Sebastien Reichenbach
Anthony Roux

 

Ineos pass through the first checkpoint at 13:58 and an average speed of 56.6kph.

 

Now AG2R La Mondiale are off. They'll be looking to do the same for Romain Bardet as FDJ are for Pinot.

 

Romain Bardet
Mickael Cheret
Benoit Cosnefroy
Mathias Frank
Tony Gallopin
Alexis Gougeard
Oliver Naesen
Alexis Vuillermoz

 

21:11:08 through the second checkpoint for Ineos.

 

Here's Team Ineos flying along out on course.

 

Astana pass through the first check. They're 14 seconds down on Ineos.

 

Movistar are the next team off. They're back with their three-pronged approach to GC. They don't have a wealth of great individual time trialists, but they're usually quite strong in this discipline.

 

Nairo Quintana
Alejandro Valverde
Andrey Amador
Imanol Erviti
Mikel Landa
Nelson Oliveira
Marc Soler
Carlos Verona

 

Wout Poels drops off the Ineos train in the final five kilometres.

 

29:18.00 for Ineos at the finish. 56.5kph average. That might be the winning time today.

 

Total Direct Energie start their effort. Estonian national TT champion Rein Taaramäe ranks among their number.

 

Lilian Calmejane
Niccolò Bonifazio
Fabien Grellier
Paul Ourselin
Romain Sicard
Rein Taaramäe
Niki Terpstra
Anthony Turgis

 

There are a number of national TT champions at the race this year. None of them are wearing their champion's skinsuits today though, as the TTT is a different discipline, raced by national teams this year onwards.

 

Luke Durbridge – Australia
Wout Van Aert – Belgium
Kasper Asgreen – Denmark
Rein Taaramäe – Estonia
Tony Martin – Germany
Alex Dowsett – Great Britain
Alexey Lutsenko – Kazakhstan
Patrick Bevin – Republic of Ireland
Jose Gonçalves – Portugal
Daryl Impey – South Africa
Jonathan Castroviejo – Spain
Stefan Küng – Switzerland

 

AG2R La Mondiale pass the first check with a time of 14:26. Not great for Bardet.

 

Mountain classification leader Greg Van Avermaet leads CCC Team down the start ramp. Though not as strong as they were in their previous guise of BMC, they'll still put in a good ride today.

 

Greg Van Avermaet
Patrick Bevin
Alessandro De Marchi
Simon Geschke
Serge Pauwels
Joey Rosskopf
Michael Schär
Lukasz Wiśniowski

 

Brad Wiggins watches AG2R's effort. He says that the team is fanning across the road, which can happen when a rider stays on the front for too long. "They're not as slick as Ineos."

 

Astana come to the finish.

 

Astana finish with a time of 29:38, 19 seconds down on Ineos.

 

UAE Team Emirates are off now. Dan Martin and Fabio Aru are their main hopes for the Tour, while Alexander Kristoff would hopefully snag a stage win.

 

Daniel Martin
Fabio Aru
Sven Erik Bystrøm
Rui Costa
Sergio Henao
Alexander Kristoff
Vegard Stake Laengen
Jasper Philipsen

 

Movistar lost 26 seconds to Ineos at the first check. not ideal.

 

Meanwhile, Groupama-FDJ are going well. At the second check, they're just 7 seconds down on Ineos.

 

Trek-Segafredo are fully behind Richie Porte this year. They're up and running now.

 

Richie Porte
Julien Bernard
Giulio Ciccone
Koen De Kort
Fabio Felline
Bauke Mollema
Toms Skujinš
Jasper Stuyven

 

Groupama-FDJ lose a rider to a crash in the final corners. He was at the back of the paceline though, and Pinot is fine.

 

They cross the line with a great time of 29:29, second fastest so far.

 

14:36 at the first check for Total Direct Energie.

 

Here's a shot of Arkéa-Samsic, the slowest team so far. It's an interesting look, that's for sure.

 

 

14:03 through the first check for CCC Team. That's the second-fastest time there so far.

 

AG2R La Mondiale finish with a time of 30:16, almost a minute down on Ineos.

 

Katusha-Alpecin are off, featuring two national TT champions in Dowsett and Gonçalves.

 

Ilnur Zakarin
Jens Debusschere
Alex Dowsett
José Gonçalves
Marco Haller
Nils Politt
Mads Würtz Schmidt
Rick Zabel

 

Movistar go through the second check at 21:50, 39 seconds down on Ineos.

 

Here's FDJ at the finish after their impressive ride.

 

 

30:02 for Movistar at the finish. That's 44 seconds down on Ineos.

 

Cofidis set off. No high expectations here. Laporte and Herrada are their men for the sprints and mountains. Rossetto and Berhane were in the break yesterday.

 

Christophe Laporte
Natnael Berhane
Nicolas Edet
Jesús Herrada
Anthony Perez
Pierre-Luc Périchon
Stéphane Rossetto
Julien Simon

 

14:24 for Trek at the first check, three seconds behind UAE Team Emirates, who passed through . a few minutes ago.

 

Dimension Data are off.

 

Edvald Boasson Hagen
Lars Ytting Bak
Steve Cummings
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg
Ben King
Roman Kreuziger
Giacomo Nizzolo
Michael Valgren

 

30:39 for Total at the finish.

 

21:24 for CCC through the second chack. They're holding their speed.

 

CCC are aiming for yellow this week, with tomorrow's stage high in their mind to launch Greg Van Avermaet.

 

Tour de France: Van Avermaet aiming for yellow jersey in first week

 

 

And they cross the line with a time of 29:28, good for second fastest.

 

Team Sunweb start their run. Michael Matthews is their man for stage wins and the green jersey challenge.

 

Michael Matthews
Nikias Arndt
Cees Bol
Chad Haga
Lennard Kämna
Wilco Kelderman
Søren Kragh Andersen
Nicolas Roche

 

Katusha-Alpecin are fastest at the first check! Their time of 13:55.19 beats Ineos by four seconds.

 

UAE Team Emirates post a time of 21:45 at the second check.

 

Peter Sagan's Bora-Hansgrohe squad are off next. They have GC ambitions with Buchmann and Konrad, while Schachmann is a potential stage hunter. Sagan, of course, is here for stage wins and a record-breaking seventh green jersey. Seven teams left to start.

 

Peter Sagan
Emanuel Buchmann
Marcus Burghardt
Patrick Konrad
Gregor Mühlberger
Daniel Oss
Lukas Pöstlberger
Maximilian Schachmann

 

UAE Team Emirates finish with a time of 30:01.

 

Astana warm down after their effort. Pello Bilbao said that Fuglsang "did his work like everybody else." Seemingly no major ill effects from his crash yesterday, then.

 

 

Cofidis just edge Astana's time at the first check. They're 18 seconds down on Katusha.

 

A disappointing time for Trek. They finish with a time of 30:15, 57 seconds down on Ineos.

 

Katusha are fastest at the second checkpoint too, a second up on Ineos.

 

Katusha-Alpecin just miss out on the fastest time! They're 5.67 seconds down on Ineos.

 

Mitchelton-Scott roll down the ramp. They'll be right up there today, supporting Adam Yates' GC bid. Their men Luke Durbridge and Daryl Impey are national TT champions.

 

Adam Yates
Luke Durbridge
Jack Haig
Michael Hepburn
Daryl Impey
Christopher Juul-Jensen
Matteo Trentin
Simon Yates

 

Team Sunweb have gone third-fastest at the first check with a time of 14:02.

 

Vincenzo Nibali's Bahrain-Merida set off. Rohan Dennis is their TT powerhouse, and they should put in a good time here.

 

Vincenzo Nibali
Damiano Caruso
Sonny Colbrelli
Rohan Dennis
Ivan García Cortina
Matej Mohorič
Dylan Teuns
Jan Tratnik

 

Bora-Hansgrohe set a time of 14:15 at the first check. A decent time.

 

Team Sunweb shed 10 seconds to Katusha at the second check – their time was 21:20.

 

EF Education First are off. They have a strong history in this discipline and have a good team here.

 

Rigoberto Urán
Alberto Bettiol
Simon Clarke
Tanel Kangert
Sebastian Langeveld
Tom Scully
Tejay Van Garderen
Michael Woods

 

Here's our podcast from the Tour countdown on how EF built their Tour de France team. 

 

How EF Education First selected their Tour de France team - Podcast

 

 

14:08 for Lotto Soudal at the first checkpoint.

 

Team Sunweb have had a great finish. They just miss out on Ineos though. Their time is 29:23.

 

Mitchelton-Scott are seven seconds down at the first check.

 

Deceuninck-QuickStep are off. They have a very strong team and could be the team to overhaul Ineos here.

 

Julian Alaphilippe
Kasper Asgreen
Dries Devenyns
Yves Lampaert
Enric Mas
Michael Mørkøv
Maximiliano Richeze
Elia Viviani

 

Simon Yates has trouble and is dropped 11km from the line.

 

Bora-Hansgrohe cross the line. Their time is 29:44.

 

Wanty-Groupe Gobert are the penultimate team off. One of their men is on a road bike, weirdly. Safe to say that they won't be finishing high up the standings here.

 

Guillaume Martin
Frederik Backaert
Aimé De Gent
Odd Christian Eiking
Xandro Meurisse
Yoann Offredo
Andrea Pasqualon
Kevin van Melsen

 

Bahrain are going fast. 14 minutes through the first checkpoint for them.

 

13:59 for EF after 13.2km, just edging out Ineos.

 

Jumbo-Visma set off, the last team to do so. They're supporting Steven Kruijswijk here, and riding to keep stage 1 winner Mike Teunissen in his bid to keep yellow.

 

Steven Kruijswijk
George Bennett
Laurens De Plus
Dylan Groenewegen
Amund Grøndahl Jansen
Tony Martin
Mike Teunissen
Wout Van Aert

 

Bahrain-Merida are 11 seconds down at the second checkpoint. Their time was 21:21.

 

QuickStep are flying. They're second fastest at the first check with a time of 13:56.

 

Mitchelton-Scott finished with a time of 29:39, 21 seconds down on Ineos. A good time, but not great by their high standards.

 

21:19 at the second check for EF. It looks like teams are fading as they progress through the course. They're nine seconds off Katusha right now.

 

Bahrain-Merida finish their ride. Another good one, and it's 29:33 for them. They're sixth at the moment.

 

Groenewegen is dropped 17km from the finish. He's clearly feeling the after-effects of his crash yesterday.

 

EF are 2km from the finish now.

 

Jumbo-Visma are already down to seven men, but they're flying. They smash Katusha's time, crossing the first checkpoint ten seconds faster at 13:45!

 

Team Ineos have been in the hot seat(s) all afternoon. It will be a brutal for them to lose this stage to the last team on the road.

 

QuickStep are going super fast too. They're in second at the second checkpoint, one second down on Katusha.

 

Devenyns drops off as they reach the final kilometre.

 

Deceuninck-QuickStep cross the line and they just miss out! 0.8 of a second down on Ineos. That is brutal.

 

Jumbo-Visma are kiling it out there! 20:55 at the second checkpoint. That's a full 15 seconds up on Katusha. Wow.

 

Wanty-Groupe Gobert finishw thia time of 30:55, the slowest so far.

 

Now we wait for Jumbo-Visma.

 

Kruijswijk, Bennett, Van Aert, Martin, Teunissen left for Jumbo. Inside the final 2km.

 

Jumbo-Visma do it! A dominant performance. They finish with a time of 28:57.

 

Two wins in two days for the Dutch squad.

 

20 seconds separates Jumbo and Ineos in first and second. Astana in tenth are 21 seconds down on Ineos, to give that performance some perspective.

 

Here's George Bennett's take on his Jumbo-Visma team, which has won two out of two stages so far during this Tour de France.

 

Analysing Jumbo-Visma's Tour de France team with George Bennett

 

 

Stage result

 

1 Jumbo-Visma 28:57

2 Team Ineos 29:18.00

3 Deceuninck-QuickStep 29:18.82

4 Team Sunweb 29:23

5 Katusha-Alpecin 29:24

6 EF Education First 29:25

7 CCC Team 29:28

8 Groupama-FDJ 29:29

9 Bahrain-Merida 29:33

10 Astana 29:38

11 Mitchelton-Scott 29:39

12 Bora-Hansgrohe 29:44

13 Cofidis 29:51

14 Dimension Data 29:52

15 Lotto Soudal 29:57

16 UAE Team Emirates 30:01

17 Movistar 30:02

18 Trek-Segafredo 30:15

19 AG2R La Mondiale 30:16

20 Total Direct Energie 30:39

21 Arkéa-Samsic 30:48

22 Wanty-Groupe Gobert 30:55

 

Mike Teunissen retains the yellow jersey, of course.

 

Yellow jersey Mike Teunissen after the finish.

 

"We heard that we were fastest, and we got so much morale – we already had a lot with this jersey on. We were flying, it was unbelievable. It's not that I'm getting used to winning stages at the Tour de France but it's two out of two now and it's really, really nice."

 

General classification after stage 2

 

1 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:51:34
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:10
3 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma
4 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Jumbo-Visma
5 George Bennett (NZl) Team Jumbo-Visma
6 Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Ineos 0:00:30
7 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos
8 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos
9 Dylan van Baarle (Ned) Team Ineos
10 Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:31

 

Here are some shots of Jumbo-Visma celebrating after the finish and taking to the podium.

 

 

 

Here's a look at the big GC names and their relative rankings after stage 2.

 

Steven Kruijswijk, George Bennett

Egan Bernal, Geraint Thomas 0:00:20

Enric Mas 0:00:21

Wilco Kelderman 0:00:26

Rigoberto Uran, Michael Woods 0:00:28

Thibaut Pinot 0:00:32

Vincenzo Nibali, Rohan Dennis 0:00:36

Adam Yates 0:00:41

Jakob Fuglsang 0:00:41

Patrick Konrad, Emanuel Buchmann 0:00:46

Dan Martin 0:01:03

Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, Mikel Landa 0:01:05

Richie Porte 0:01:18

Romain Bardet 0:01:19

 

Belgian legenad Tom Boonen and stage winner Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) chat after the finish.

 

 

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